Two talented groups (artists and intellectually gifted) and one comparison group (graduate students from various disciplines) were examined on five dimensions of mental functioning: psychomotor, sensual, intellectual, imaginational, and emotional. These dimensions constitute a model of developmental potential representing, respectively, the personal level of energy, sensual aliveness, the pursuit of knowledge and truth, imagination, and the life of feeling. According to this model, the strength, richness, and depth of talent are a function of the strength of these five dimensions, measured on an open-ended questionnaire. Analysis showed that intellectual talent tends to be associated with high scores on three dimensions (intellectual, imaginational, and emotional), while artistic talent tends to be associated with high scores on all five dimensions (especially strong on imaginational and emotional). In contrast, the graduate students had lower scores on all five dimensions.
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