ORIGINAL RESEARCH Exceptional Cognitive Ability: The Phenotype David Lubinski Received: 9 February 2009 / Accepted: 15 April 2009 / Published online: 8 May 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009 Abstract Characterizing the outcomes related to the phenotype of exceptional cognitive abilities has been fea- sible in recent years due to the availability of large samples of intellectually precocious adolescents identified by modern talent searches that have been followed-up longi- tudinally over multiple decades. The level and pattern of cognitive abilities, even among participants within the top 1% of general intellectual ability, are related to differential developmental trajectories and important life accomplish- ments: The likelihood of earning a doctorate, earning exceptional compensation, publishing novels, securing patents, and earning tenure at a top university (and the academic disciplines within which tenure is most likely to occur) all vary as a function of individual differences in cognitive abilities assessed decades earlier. Individual differences that distinguish the able (top 1 in 100) from the exceptionally able (top 1 in 10,000) during early adoles- cence matter in life, and, given the heritability of general intelligence, they suggest that understanding the genetic and environmental origins of exceptional abilities should be a high priority for behavior genetic research, especially because the results for extreme groups could differ from the rest of the population. In addition to enhancing our understanding of the etiology of general intelligence at the extreme, such inquiry may also reveal fundamental deter- minants of specific abilities, like mathematical versus verbal reasoning, and the distinctive phenotypes that contrasting ability patterns are most likely to eventuate in at extraordinary levels. Keywords Exceptional cognitive abilities Á Intellectual talent Á Talent searches Á Talent development Introduction For a special issue of Behavior Genetics focused on cog- nitive abilities, it is perhaps wise to begin by characterizing the phenotype under analysis at the extreme. How do people who possess extraordinary cognitive abilities at an early age look? How do they develop in school and, sub- sequently, at work? What potential do they harbor for genuine manifestations of creativity? This introduction builds on multiple large-scale analyses of cognitive abili- ties and the outcomes they forecast over protracted inter- vals. Given the amount of information that has emerged on the importance of cognitive abilities for learning in edu- cational settings (Corno et al. 2002; Kuncel et al. 2001; Kuncel and Hezlett 2007; Sackett et al. 2009) and work performance in occupational settings (Gottfredson 2003; Schmidt and Hunter 1998), this review focuses on recent findings on the role cognitive abilities play in the devel- opment of truly outstanding human accomplishments. Some background is need, however, to set the stage for these longitudinal findings. First, the nature and organization of cognitive abilities will be described. Second, modern talent searches utilizing measures of these abilities will be reviewed to reveal how thousands of gifted (top 1%) and hundreds of profoundly gifted (top .01%) participants are efficiently identified during early adolescence annually in the US. Third, the findings of follow-up studies that have tracked hundreds of Edited by Robert Plomin. D. Lubinski (&) Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, 0552 GPC, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203, USA e-mail: david.lubinski@vanderbilt.edu 123 Behav Genet (2009) 39:350–358 DOI 10.1007/s10519-009-9273-0