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Articles (old site)

Here are some articles written for a general audience. See here to download my scientific papers.

From Evaluation to Inspiration
In a culture obsessed with measuring talent, ability, and potential, we often overlook the important role of inspiration in enabling potential.
Medium

The Real Neuroscience of Creativity
Thoughtful cognitive neuroscientists are on the forefront of investigating what actually happens in the brain during the creative process. And their findings are overturning conventional notions surrounding the neuroscience of creativity.
Scientific American

What is Talent – and Can Science Spot What We Will Be Best At?
Practice and our genes are not the only factors when it comes to developing special abilities.

The Guardian

Confessions of a Late Bloomer

We have fixed notions about the time course of success and the nature of talent that encourage us to write off the very people who are most likely to (eventually) change the world.
Psychology Today

Daydreams: How Fantasies Shape Your Future
How is it that an activity considered a lapse in attention can bring about benefits believed to result only from the strict exercise of cognitive control? Let’s hear it for daydreaming!
Psychology Today

The Origins of Positive-Constructive Daydreaming
Co-authored with Jerome L. Singer
In the past decade, research has shed much light on the mental state of inattention. Amidst all this research, however, we want to make sure daydreaming doesn’t get overlooked.
Scientific American

From Contretemps to Creativity
For some people, hardship can trigger creative growth.
Scientific American Mind

American education and the IQ trap
What does it mean to be gifted in the United States?
L.A. Times

Gifted Ed. Is Crucial, But the Label Isn’t (co-authored with Scott J. Peters, Michael S. Matthews, Matthew T. McBee, D. Betsy McCoach)
Giving students a challenging education is important, regardless of whether they have been designated as ‘gifted’
Education Week

The End of Education as We Know It
Using online media, adventurous educators are engaging students and teachers in fresh ways.

design mind

The Real Link Between Creativity and Mental Illness
The romantic notion that mental illness and creativity are linked is so prominent in the public consciousness that it is rarely challenged. But what really is the link?
Scientific American

The Need for Pretend Play in Child Development (co-authored with Jerome L. Singer and Dorothy G. Singer)
Over the last seventy-five years a number of theorists and researchers have identified the values of such imaginative play as a vital component to the normal development of a child.
Scientific American

After the Show: The Many Faces of the Performer
The many complexities and sensitivities of creative people.
Huffington Post

Openness to Experience and Creative Achievement
Openness to experience– the drive for cognitive exploration of inner and outer experience– is the personality trait most consistently associated with creativity.

Scientific American

How Renaissance People Think
Are you more of a rational or intuitive thinker?

Scientific American

Why Education Needs More Radioactive Spiders
The important role that identity and passion plays in education.
Scientific American

Profiling Serial Creators
Every single day, all across the globe, extraordinarily creative and talented students sit in our classrooms bored out of their minds. 

Scientific American

The Need to Believe in the Ability of Disability (co-authored with Kevin McGrew)
Our society has clear expectations regarding students who don’t fit the norm.
The Creativity Post

Who is Currently Identified as Gifted in the United States?
A recent national survey of state policies and practices reveals how the United States defines giftedness, identifies giftedness, and accommodates gifted minority students.
The Creativity Post

Why Your Passion for Work Could Ruin Your Career
While passion seems clearly desirable, recent psychological research suggests that not all forms are adaptive.
Harvard Business Review

Increase Your Passion for Work Without Becoming Obsessed
Is obsessive passion ever helpful? What should you do if you recognize that your passion for work is not harmonious, but obsessive?
Harvard Business Review

How to Win American Idol
Cracking the pop-stardom code: It’s not talent or looks– it’s something far more improbable.
Psychology Today

How to Spot a Narcissist
Welcome to the contradictory universe of narcissism.

Psychology Today