Means and standard deviations (SDs) were calculated for each test criterion for both the talent identified and non-talent identified groups. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to test the main effect of status (two levels: talent identified, non-talent identified) on the criterion variables, with follow up univariate analysis (one-way ANOVA) being used to identify which, if any, criterion variable(s) sig- nificantly differed according to the main effect. The effect of status on each criterion variable was calculated using Cohen’s d statistic; where an effect size of d = 0.00–0.20 was consid- ered to be small, d = 0.21–0.50 moderate, d = 0.51–0.80 large and d > 0.81 very large (Cohen, 1988). All between-group comparisons were undertaken using the SPSS software (Version 19, SPSS Inc., Armonk, New York, 2010) and the Type-I error rate was set at α < 0.05.