The purpose of this study was to investigate the relative importance of chronological age versus mental aptitude in determining complexity of epistemological thinking. Nineteen gifted students with chronological ages between 12 and 15 yr. and mental aptitude in the gifted range completed the Adherence Scale, a scale designed to distinguish students with dualistic and relativistic epistemological beliefs. Since we found that over 50% of our subjects held relativistic beliefs, yielding a significant chi squared, mental aptitude appears to be more important in determining students' epistemological beliefs. Methodological limitations regarding this finding are briefly discussed.
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