Developmental Changes in High Cognitive Ability Children: The Role of Nature and Nurture

General cognitive ability (GCA) shows increased stability as individuals age, but stability values are relatively low in early childhood. Remarkable changes in GCA scores are therefore expected during the first developmental stages. Here we address this main research question: which personal and situational factors help to distinguish children showing high cognitive ability at early age (4 and 7 yrs.) and keeping their high scores at later ages (12, 16, and 21 yrs.) from those who lose their high scores as time goes by? This question is complemented by the analysis of those showing normative ability scores at early ages for knowing if the operating factors identified for the main question also holds for this band of the cognitive ability distribution. Beginning with 11,119 participants from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS), latent curve models (LCM’s) were estimated for studying developmental changes of interest in 1,580 high ability individuals (GCA115) and in 3,958 normative individuals (GCA100). The main findings reveal that most are cognitively mobile, so early identification of high ability children must be seen with reservations. The identified changes are mainly predicted by personal instead of situational factors, supporting the guiding force of nature through nurture.