Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: PRISCILA MAGALHAES BARROS

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
DISCENTE : PRISCILA MAGALHAES BARROS
DATA : 28/09/2018
HORA: 17:30
LOCAL: Auditório do Laboratório de Psicologia
TÍTULO:

EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS, CREATIVITY AND INTELLECTUAL PERFORMANCE IN YOUNG TALENTS

PALAVRAS-CHAVES:

high reasoning ability; intelligence; giftedness; executive functions; creativity; Torrance tests.

PÁGINAS: 155
GRANDE ÁREA: Ciências Humanas
ÁREA: Psicologia
RESUMO:

Scientific efforts in giftedness research are based on a long history of theories whose main focus is the investigation of intellectual capacity. Despite the imprecision of giftedness, most researchers agree that it is not a unitary concept, but a multifaceted phenomenon to be inferred from a constellation of traits and characteristics. This research adopts the Renzulli’s Triadic Model (1986, 2004). For the author, giftedness present in the interaction of three factors: above average ability, task commitment and creativity. This thesis explores, in particular, overall characteristics of creativity and the manifestation of above average ability, notably related to executive functioning and underlying high order skills. This proposal is linked to Metrópole Digital Project of UFRN, whose designed to offer young people identified as gifted and talented the formation and development of their potentials (Hazin et al., 2015). Recent research points to executive functions (EFs) as important predictors of school achievement, with larger impact on learning process than intelligence coefficient (IQ), reading level or mathematical reasoning. Thereby, this research is justified by the need for a better understanding between higher psychological processes and intellectual capacity, including in this equation creative production measures. This debate can contribute to the advancement in understanding the functioning of higher psychological functions in specific subgroups, helping to identify their potentials and deficits, with important consequences for the proposition of clinical and educational interventions. PURPOSE STATEMENTS Hereupon, this project aims to investigate the relationships between executive functions, creativity and high intellectual potential. Specifically, it proposes to evaluate the level of figural creativity in subgroups according to the factors proposed by Nakano & Wechsler (2006); verify the threshold hypothesis after a certain level of intelligence; define the internal constructs structure and the predictive power of variables in groups, in order to propose the best fit model to explain the higher-than-average intelligence profile. To this end, three studies are being developed: (1) Identification of talents in childhood: instruments, theories and assessment strategies (systematic review); (2) Performance in verbal and visuospatial measures of WM in different levels of intelligence (comparative study) and (3) The predictive value of high intellectual potential in executive functions and figural creativity (case-control study). METHOD We evaluated 177 subjects, and 100 were selected based on the interpretation of the percentile scale of Raven's Progressive Matrices. The final sample is composed of female and male subjects, aged between 12-23 years, divided into two groups matched by sex and average age (n = 50 per group), namely: high intellectual abilities group (higher percentile or greater than 95 in the Raven’s test) and a control group formed by youngsters with average intelligence (percentile greater than 25 and less than 75). Neuropsychological assessment protocol used includes the following domains: intellectual capacity, attention, memory, visoespacial ability, EFs and characteristics of creative thinking, according to the multidimensional model of Torrance & Ball (1990). Data are being examined through statistical software, and the results are subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics analysis. To evaluate the predictive power of specific components of EF and creativity, linear regressions were performed. Univariate and multivariate analysis of variance were used to verify isolated and interaction effect of variables. INITIAL RESULTS Sample consisted mostly of boys (n = 100, 80%) and the participants of both groups had a mean age of 17 years (SD = 2,558). Partial results from Study 2 indicate that intellectual ability accounts for 73.7% of the variation in performance in semantic verbal fluency (highest magnitude of this ratio) and about 40-50% of performance in working memory (WM). ANOVA’s results confirm the best fit of the model with predictors. It was identified high correlations between intelligence measures and WM performance in dual-tasks (backwards order of the Corsi and Digits span tasks). Positive and moderate correlation coefficients were found among all WM subsystems, which reinforces the relevance of Baddeley’s multicomponent model adopted (Baddeley, 2000; Baddeley & Hitch, 1974), which aggregates them as part of the same construct. Regarding Study 3, it was concluded that the group with above-average intelligence presented superior performance in most measures. MANOVA indicated that there is no interaction effect between sex and age in the performance of the tests. However, multiple comparisons of post-hoc tests suggest differences between age groups. In general, the high intellectual abilities group presents higher means than the control group. There is no statistically significant difference between groups in the performance of short-term visual memory task. In the evaluation of children's figural creativity, the groups do not differ statistically in terms of global creativity, but in specific skills related to Factors 1 (enrichment of ideas) and 3 (creative preparation). It was identified that cognitive ability predicts approximately 25% of the explained variance of these factors. CONSIDERATIONS Finally, it is concluded that the intelligence measure adopted predicts creativity characteristics with greater statistical significance and magnitude than EF’s measures, especially with regard to the unusual visual perspective; elaboration and expressiveness of titles. The proposal is in the final phase of multivariate cluster analysis, factorial structure and structural equation modeling (SEM). In an above-average intelligence context, it is expected that factors linked to cognitive flexibility present high coefficients with creativity, acting as predictors of high intellectual capacity

MEMBROS DA BANCA:
Externo à Instituição - DANIELLE FERREIRA GARCIA MAFRA CAMPELO
Presidente - 1321136 - IZABEL AUGUSTA HAZIN PIRES
Externo à Instituição - RODRIGO DA SILVA MAIA - UNIFACEX