Adult Status of Highly Intelligent Children

Leta Stetter Hollingworth: A pilgrim in research in her time and ours

“…Using a somewhat different sample and a different battery of mental tests, Lorge & Hollingworth (1936) reaffirmed the earlier findings: Highly gifted students maintain their top status in mental ability until adulthood. In this second article, Hollingworth also discussed the concept of genius.…”

“…H ollingworth also conducted several studies that addressed specific identification issues, the most important of which were two reports on the stability of giftedness (Hollingworth & Kaunitz, 1934;Lorge & Hollingworth, 1936). In the first of these two studies, she retested individuals who as children had been identified as being in the top 1% in ability (greater than 130 IQ) on the Stanford-Binet.…”

“…Lewis Terman had labeled children with 140+ IQ as being geniuses. Hollingworth questioned the wisdom of this judgment because such an ability level is "found to define the 75th percentile of college graduates" (Lorge & Hollingworth, 1936). Rather, "it is only when we have an IQ (S-B) of at least 160 in a child that we may begin to expect mildly noteworthy accomplishments" (Lorge & Hollingworth, 1936, p. 224).…”

Chapter IV: Intellectual Changes during Maturity and Old Age

“…Brody (23), reworking studies (92) and (96), found a closer relationship of achievement to years of schooling than to intelligence, although (96) and (92) reported the interpretation that intelligence is basic to achievement. Terman and others (69,81,93,94) reported that superior status on intelligence in childhood is indicative of superior status on such tests in adult life, high personality ratings, and good standing in college, although a considerable number had not lived up to their ability.…”

The Mentally Gifted

“…Hollingworth and Kaunitz (29) found that, of the original group of 116 children who were above the top percentile point, 82 percent remained there after ten years. Lorge and Hollingworth (45) reported that high performance on adult-level tests were predictable on the basis of high Binet IQ's, and suggested that special superiority (genius?) Terman and Oden's reports (72,73) of the status of the original California gifted group sixteen years later, further corroborate the generalization.…”