It is the combination of complex and deep thinking and rich and intense emotion that produces the gifted persons' greater potential for high achievement. The gifted intellect provides a myriad of possibilities and sees ideals and the gifted emotions provide the intense drive towards the ideals.

One of the basic characteristics of the gifted is their intensity. Intensity is not a matter of degree but of a different way of experiencing: vivid, absorbing, penetrating, encompassing, complex, commanding - a way of being quiveringly alive.

Overexcitability is a sensitivity of the nervous system, an expanded awareness of and a heightened capacity to respond to stimuli such as noise, light, smell, touch etc. The term ‘overexcitability’ conveys the idea that this stimulation of the nervous system is well beyond the usual or average in intensity and duration.

Dr Linda Silverman, the pioneer of the Visual Spatial Learner concept identifies two types of gifted visual spatial learners. The first is children identified as gifted who score extremely high on an IQ test because of their great ability both with tasks using visual spatial processing and those requiring auditory sequential thinking processes. The second is children who are brighter than their IQ scores, who have great ability in visual spatial processing and marked weaknesses in auditory sequential processing.

Western civilisation today is dominated by the extravert viewpoint. This is because extraverts outnumber introverts 3 to 1, are more vocal than introverts and are more understandable than introverts. However, while introverts are a minority group in society, they form the majority of gifted people.

It seems that vagueness is associated with extremely high intelligence and an introverted personality type. For people who have an introverted way of operating, the world inside their heads is often more interesting than the world outside. This is particularly so if they have very high intelligence.