ABSTRACT
This chapter combines multiple sources of prospective and retrospective longitudinal data to show that intelligence, even at the very highest levels, matters in the development of professional expertise. It reviews prospective data from the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) to examine the extent to which people in the top 1" in intelligence end up as professional experts later in life. It reviews retrospective data from numerous extreme right tail achievement occupations, examining the extent to which these groups were in the top 1" in intelligence in their youth. The idea that talent matters in the development of professional expertise throughout the full range would be supported by the extent to which the link between ability and expertise can be made using multiple independent sources of prospective and retrospective data.
