Intelligence - Spearman and Gardner Term Paper

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The standard IQ tests based on the work of Alfred Binet and Lewis Terman are also based on the idea of a single-ability measure of intelligence.

Multiple intelligence

The idea of a single g factoring intelligence, however, has numerous critics. As early as 1938, psychologist L.L. Thurstone criticized the narrowness of Spearman's model. Thurstone argued that mental abilities such as verbal comprehension, spatial visualization and reasoning were distinct forms of intelligences that should be considered separate from one another (Huffman 2003).

Howard Gardner, a cognitive theorist, pursued this idea further by proposing a theory of multiple intelligences. Gardner devised a criteria of eight intelligences, including linguistic skills, bodily-kinesthetic skills and logical-mathematical skills. According to Gardner, people can have different profiles of intelligence, meaning that they can have challenges in some areas but exhibit strengths in others. Because of these different forms of intelligence, Gardner proposed that people also have distinct learning styles (Huffman 2003). Thus, a person with strengths in kinesthetic and spatial intelligence will have very different learning styles from people who have strong linguistic and logical-mathematical skills.

The idea of multiple intelligences has numerous implications for standardized testing. Gardner's writings challenge the validity and usefulness of data culled from tests such as the Stanford-Binet, which is used to assess the intelligence of children aged 3-16 in the United States.

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For Gardner, tests should assess a person's different strengths, rather than distilling a person's myriad intelligences into a one-size-fits-all IQ score. Gardner's work also provides further challenges for the educational system, to develop pedagogical methods that address different intelligences and learning styles and to create more comprehensive testing material.

Many forms of intelligence

Gardner's idea of multiple intelligences is now emerging as the major theory of intelligence, and for good reason. Previous measures relied heavily on ethnocentric cultural values, such as the emphasis on reading and verbal logic. Nomadic cultures, on the other hand, would certainly place a primacy on spatial reasoning, a form of intelligence that is muted under measures for g.

The g also relies largely on factors like heredity. However, social psychologists today are recognizing the importance of environment in one's development - whether social or intellectual. Gardner's criteria, with their recognition of multiple forms of intelligence, are more accepting of ideas of social environment and cultural difference.

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