This volume, much like its companion text Cognition in Special Children, focuses on intellectual and motivational processes that characterize individuals at the extremes of human talent. The aim is to understand more about exceptional children: how they are like and unlike other children, and what intellectual and motivational processes best explain their delayed or accelerated performance. The link between exceptionality and intelligence is examined from three perspectives: the role of intelligence theories and tests in the diagnosis and classification of retarded, learning disabled, and gifted children and adolescents; the use of intelligence theory to guide educational programming; and the importance of special populations for constructing, revising, and assessing new models of intelligence.