Are the mechanisms underlying mathematical learning in mathematically-gifted students fundamentally different?

It is currently unknown whether the mechanisms underlying mathematical learning in mathematically talented children are fundamentally different from those in unselected students. For example, do mathematically gifted children have particularly well developed number sense? We administered a large battery of mathematical, spatial, and number sense tests to two groups of 16 year old Russian students: a representative sample of students from several standard public schools; and a unique sample of mathematically gifted children from 3 specialist schools for mathematically gifted children. For all of the measures, the mathematically gifted students showed significantly different distributions from those for the unselected sample. Significant differences between the groups were found in performance on most measures, and in the structure of the relationships among the measures. The results are discussed in terms of the role of spatial and number sense abilities in mathematical achievement, as well as genetic factors involved in mathematical learning.