SCIENCE BEHIND TALENT

SCIENCE BEHIND TALENT

There are many people in the world who are talented. But from where it comes? And when those people have obvious talent, we think weather they were born with it or it was the product of many hours of practice. 

What is Talent actually means?
An aptitude is a component of a competence to do a certain kind of work at a certain level. Outstanding aptitude can be considered "talent". An aptitude may be physical or mental. Aptitude is inborn potential to do certain kinds of work whether developed or undeveloped. Ability is developed knowledge, understanding, learned or acquired abilities (skills) or attitude. The innate nature of aptitude is in contrast to skills and achievement, which represent knowledge or ability that is gained through learning.

Aptitude and intelligence quotient are related, and in some ways differing views of human mental ability. Unlike the original idea of IQ, aptitude often refers to one of many different characteristics which can be independent of each other, such as aptitude for military flight, air traffic control, or computer programming. This approach measures a variety of separate skills, similar to the theory of multiple intelligences and Cattell–Horn–Carroll theory and many other modern theories of intelligence. In general, aptitude tests are more likely to be designed and used for career and employment decisions, and intelligence tests are more likely to be used for educational and research purposes. However, there is a great deal of overlap between them, and they often measure the same kinds of abilities. For example, aptitude tests such as the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery measure enough aptitudes that they could also serve as a measure of general intelligence.

The theory of multiple intelligences:-

 According to the theory, an intelligence must fulfill eight criteria:-potential for brain isolation by brain damage, place in evolutionary history, presence of core operations, susceptibility to encoding (symbolic expression), a distinct developmental progression, the existence of savants, prodigies and other exceptional people, and support from experimental psychology and psychometric findings.

Gardner proposed eight abilities that he held to meet these criteria:- musical-rhythmic, visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. He later suggested that existential and moral intelligence may also be worthy of inclusion. Although the distinction between intelligences has been set out in great detail, Gardner opposes the idea of labeling learners to a specific intelligence. Gardner maintains that his theory should "empower learners", not restrict them to one modality of learning. According to Gardner, an intelligence is "a biopsychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture."

Cattell–Horn–Carroll theory:-

Based on the work of three psychologists, Raymond B. Cattell, John L. Horn and John B. Carroll, the Cattell–Horn–Carroll theory is widely regarded as the most influential theory in the study of human intelligence. Based on a large body of research, spanning over 70 years, the theory was developed using the psychometric approach, the objective measurement of individual differences in abilities, and the application of factor analysis, a statistical technique which uncovers relationships between variables and the underlying structure of concepts such as 'intelligence'. The psychometric approach has consistently facilitated the development of reliable and valid measurement tools and continues to dominate the field of intelligence research.

The Cattell–Horn–Carroll theory is an integration of two previously established theoretical models of intelligence: the Gf-Gc theory of fluid and crystallised intelligence (Cattell, 1941; Horn 1965), and Carroll's Three-Stratum theory (1993), a hierarchical, three-stratum model of intelligence. Due to substantial similarities between the two theories they were successfully amalgamated to form the Cattell–Horn–Carroll theory..

In the late 1990s, the CHC model was expanded by McGrew, later revised with the help of Flanagan. Later extensions of the model are detailed in McGrew (2011) and Schneider and McGrew (2012) There are a fairly large number of distinct individual differences in cognitive ability, and CHC theory holds that the relationships among them can be derived by classifying them into three different strata: stratum I, "narrow" abilities; stratum II, "broad abilities"; and stratum III, consisting of a single "general ability" (or g).

Today, the Cattell–Horn–Carroll theory is widely accepted as the most comprehensive and empirically supported theory of cognitive abilities, informing a substantial body of research and the ongoing development of IQ tests.

The Natural talent is that talent, when someone is born with it and thus, it is so called God-Gifted. The other people believe that there is no such thing as being A Natural. And so according to them, Talent is the result of discipline i.e. the product of many hours of practice and conscious dedication to one's craft. And these kind of people argue there are no shortcuts to hardwork. Getting good at anything is a regular grind of practice makes perfect. 

You see, Sometimes winners don't like to show the how much effort they put into becoming good at that thing. They would rather you think they are just geniuses. There is more status, they believe, in being naturally good at something. They think it is cooler to be talented without having had to sweat for it.

What do you think?