• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.261-277
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• 2009

This article provides a new definition of giftedness drawn from a cognitive mechanism. The mechanism shows how cognitive components are functionally related to each other and cooperatively "work" together, producing the various cognitive phenomena in the social world. The author argues that for a universally agreed definition, giftedness has to be understood in the mechanism, the origin of all the cognitive phenomena in cultural or social contexts. According to the definition drawn form the cognitive mechanism, giftedness is the ability to form a simple and fundamental domains-integrated knowledge of the "whole" world. A new method for identifying gifted students is subsequently suggested.