The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) is a study project and was founded by Dr Julian Stanley in 1971 at the Johns Hopkins University. In 1986, it moved to Iowa State University, where it was headed by Dr Camilla Benbow until 1990, and from then on by Dr Benbow and Dr David Lubinski. In 1998, it moved again, this time to Vanderbilt University.
SMPY is the longest-running longitudinal study of gifted children in history. Subjects are identified by high scores in the SAT, perhaps the most extensively normed psychometric test in existence, which they take at or before the age of 13. There are several groups of subjects: those who score in the top 1%, the top 0.5%, and the top 0.01%. (This latter group is one in ten thousand, which makes SMPY perhaps the only reliable study of profoundly gifted youth.) Although after the first year, Stanley decided to include students with exceptional scores in either the mathematics or verbal tests, the name SMPY was retained. Extensive follow-ups were done after five, ten, twenty[1] and 35[2] years enabling Benbow, Lubinski, their students, and assistants to explore individual differences among intellectually able individuals. Their research has uncovered that the profoundly gifted have different educational needs and accomplish much more in school and work than moderately gifted. Talented males and females also have differing abilities, interests, and lifestyle preferences, although they often express similar levels of intellectual satisfaction and achieve advanced educational credentials at similar rates. The sex differences on the things-people dimension have been manifested in education and work, among the adolescents Benbow, Lubinski, and their associates have studied. SMPY has found that talented individuals with marked tilts tend to pursue careers matching their strength. Highly able youth with notably stronger mathematical than verbal ability often study and work in science and engineering, whereas adolescents with much better verbal scores than mathematically frequently went into the humanities, arts, social science, or law. Individuals with comparable mathematical and verbal ability did not follow such clear-cut trajectories, although many males with the "high-flat" ability profile pursued educational and vocational pursuits in science. [3] [4]