THE SCIENCE OF GENIUS

“Outstanding creativity in all domains may stem from shared attributes and a common process of discovery”

By: Dean Keith Simonton

Published: Scientific American Mind; November – December 2012; 
To access the text, copy paste the following: 
http://www.nature.com/scientificamericanmind/journal/v23/n5/full/scientificamericanmind1112-34.html

Level of Difficulty: ****

BEFORE YOU READ

·         How would you determine a genius?

·         What abilities do geniuses have?

·         Do they suffer any problems?

·         Would you have liked to be an absolute genius?

QUESTIONS

1.       The conclusion the writer reaches as a result of the modern day examples of geniuses he lists is ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

2.       If the ultimate goal of the research into how the mind of a genius works is achieved, this could provide the added bonus of enabling scientists to ………………………………………………………..

3.       Beethoven, Tolstoy, Shakespeare and Newton are credited with being geniuses thanks to ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

4.       Which definition of genius does the writer believe is more beneficial? For what reasons? You are going to have to use your own words to some extent so careful.

5.       Mendel, Darwin, Max Born and Einstein are all geniuses but vary in terms of ………………………..

6.       What does “this precise issue” in the section titled “Origins of Genius” refer to?

7.       What is “the ten year rule” and is it completely reliable?

8.       Why or why not? Two reasons.

9.       Read the examples of Einstein and Galileo. What do they prove?

10.   How does the writer support the contention that 20% of the variation in creativity can be attributed to nature? You will need to tweak the text.

11.   What aspect of the emergence of a genius does nature contribute to according to the writer?

12.   As a result of the experiences of Virginia Wolf, Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Van Gogh, Newton and Galileo, experts began to wonder about…………………………………………………………………………..

13.   Which sentence best summarizes the information concerning the writers 2005 review?

14.   Do Keri’s findings support the above view or not? Explain.

15.   What do the stories of Archimedes and Newton share with Pasteur’s discovery of penicillin on a petri dish?

16.   Why does the writer feel there must be something else uniting Archimedes, Newton and a brilliant writer or musician?

17.   …………………………..and……………………………………are two features of BVSR, or blind variation and selective retention.

18.   Whose views does this quote from Einstein support? Think of the last couple of pages you have been reading.

19.   All the sketches Picasso made in preparation for Guernica prove that…………………………(you will need to tweak the text)

20.   What is the advantage to the genius of the pursuit of diverse hobbies and openness to new ideas?

WRITING TASK

Write a summary of no more than 220 words of this long text. Since the text is long and you have a word limit, you are going to have to make some notes for yourself and plan carefully. When you have completed your summary you can check out the example in the file marked Sample Essays.

THE SCIENCE OF GENIUS KEY AND TEACHER’S NOTES

This is a truly fascinating text as are a lot of articles in Scientific American Mind and is very absorbing indeed so much so that I felt I just had to share it with you. I had one problem though: it is a factual text and as such does not lend itself to those good comprehension questions. I did my best but it is easy for this level. Still it is wonderful reading and the writing task more than makes up for the relatively easy questions; it is tough.

1.       How little we understand about the origins of intellectual and creative eminence.

2.       To investigate whether genius can be cultivated (unleashing a wealth of new ideas for the benefit of all)

3.       Their exceptional achievements

4.       Exceptional achievement; many exceptional achievers don’t achieve high IQ; possible second point: those that have high IQ are not all exceptional achievers

5.       The magnitude of their creative achievements

6.       Whether genius must be born or whether one becomes a genius

7.       Nobody can expect to reach the heights of creativity without mastering the knowledge or skills because only experts can create; No

8.       Because geniuses often spend less time acquiring domain information than their less creative colleagues; major breakthroughs often occur in areas where the genius must create the necessary expertise from scratch.

9.       Geniuses are more likely to exhibit unusually wide interests and hobbies and to display exceptional versatility often contributing to more than one domain of expertise.

10.   Openness to experience, cognitive and behavioral flexibility, tolerance of ambiguity and change are all heritable characteristics and common in geniuses

11.   The rate at which someone acquires necessary skills and knowledge

12.   Whether the biological endowment of a genius also confers great setbacks

13.   All told, top performers are not a very normal bunch

14.   They support it. He found a genetic basis for both creativity and psychosis in a variant of the Neuregulin 1 gene

15.   Serendipity

16.   Because something else must permit a person to go beyond tradition and training to reach the summit of genius.

17.   Superfluity and backtracking

18.   Campbell, the writer and Hermann Von Helmholtz

19.   Superfluity and backtracking exist in the arts

20.   It infuses them with seemingly irrelevant stimulation that can enrich blind variations