Cross-sectional comparisons of different age groups are usually easier and quicker to make than comparisons of a single group over a number of years. This note calls attention to a study initiated by Lewis Terman, founder of the gifted-child movement, in which results of the two methods can be compared. He had administered one form of his Concept Mastery (verbal-ability) Test (CMT) to several related groups, and twelve years later administered a comparable form of that test to the same persons. Both types of comparisons indicated that CMT ability improves considerably with age. This multiple checking of several groups each time versus the same groups over time strengthens the conclusion.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bayley, N., & Oden, M.H. (1955). The maintenance of intellectual ability in gifted adults. Journal of Gerontology, 10B (1), 91-107.
2.
Benbow, C.P. (1983). Adolescence of the mathematically precocious: A five-year longitudinal study. In C. P. Benbow & J. C. Stanley (Eds.), Academic precocity: Aspects of its development (pp. 9-37). Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press.
3.
Benbow, C.P., & Stanley, J.C. (1982). Consequences in high school and college of sex differences in mathematical reasoning ability: A longitudinal perspective . American Education Research Journal, 19(4), 598-622.
4.
Burks, B.S., Jensen, D.W.; & Terman, L.M. (1930). The promise of youth: Follow-up studies of a thousand gifted children. Genetic Studies of Genius (Vol. III). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
5.
Campbell, D.T., & Stanley, J.C. (1966). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Boston: Houghton Mifflin . (Originally appeared as "Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research on teaching." In N. L. Gage [Ed.],Handbook of research on teaching pp. 171- 246. Chicago: Rand McNally.)
