Summary.Despite considerable interest over recent years in the subject of gifted children, there has been little research into the cognitive processing of such children as compared with normal or above average children. This study examined the processing of 323 Grades 5 and 6 children from the Newcastle (NSW) area, using Luria's simultaneous/successive model of cognitive processing as a basis for the investigation. Among the subjects were 75 who were identified as being “gifted”. Results showed that in the areas of successive processing and low level planning the gifted subjects were not significantly better than their above average counterparts, but in the areas of high level planning and simultaneous processing significant differences were recorded. From these results a number of developmental ceilings were sugges