Psychological and Neuroscientific Perspectives on Mathematical Creativity and Giftedness

Abstract

Creativity and giftedness have long been linked together in the literature, particularly where giftedness is conceived, not in the analytically focused sense of schoolhouse giftedness (e.g. Renzulli, 1978), but in the sense of creative-productive giftedness that emphasizes the generation and production of ideas. Creativity has a well-established foundation in the psychological literature, and a growing body of work derived from neuroscientific approaches. How do these contrasting psychological and neuroscientific approaches inform our understanding of creativity as a component of giftedness in general? How is giftedness manifest in mathematics in the creative-productive sense? What do psychology and neuroscience tell us about the process of fostering mathematical giftedness specifically? In this chapter, we examine first general aspects of creativity and giftedness, noting that Treffinger's (2004) five themes provide a framework for understanding the connection between creativity and giftedness. Having established that creativity and giftedness are connected through these five themes, we then turn attention first to a psychological view of factors that are important for understanding mathematical creativity and giftedness, followed by a neuroscientific examination of the same.