Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Presented by
Prof..K.Prabhakar
Coordinator FDP-AICTE
Programme
 Why all the interest in
Intelligence
 The educational opportunities depend on one
type of testing or other
 it is used as a predictive tool for performance
in the job situations
 Many a times we miss Einsteins,
Gandhis,Balamuralikrishnas and brand them as
dunces
 In fact human potential is not identified as we
are not able to understand it
What is Human Potential?
 We all go through various tests such as
SAT,CAT,MAT,GMAT, IIT Entrance Examinations,
IAS etc.
 Do they measure the potential of a Humanbeing to
perform future tasks or tests what we know
already?
 What it measures?
 How it measures?
 Is it more focussed on the tool than on what it is
supposed to measure?
 What is Intelligence ?
 It is the single  It can be measured
general capacity that by standardized
every Humanbeing verbal instruments,
possess to a greater such as short
or lesser extent answers, paper and
pencil tests
 Who is true genius?
 A mind of large general powers , accidentally
determined to some particular directions-
S.Johnson
 What is large general powers?
 The mind has potential to deal with many
different content, does it mean that persons
ability with one kind has an effect on other
content?
 No scientific proof is available to prove the
state ment of Samuel Johnson
 How Intelligence is
expressed?
 Think and write five sentences on your
idea of intelligence
 Keep it until we go the slide on How it
is expressed.
 Intelligence
Earlier views
 Joseph Gall has observed a relationship
between certain mental characteristics
of his schoolmates and shapes of their
heads
 Phrenological Characteristics

 Gall’s Hypothesis
Charles Spearman’ Two factor
theory
 In examining correlation of various subsets
of intelligence, he found that certain subsets
tend to correlate higher than others
 His hypothesis is all intellectual tasks must
entail the exercise of a factor known as
general intelligence(g factor)
 Each individual type of item requiring
specific factor called S factor.
 Two Factor Theory
 An individual has
overall supply of
mental energy and
the S factor is
invoked for specific
purpose as
neurological engine.
 He thought that it
can be represented
by a single number
 LouisThrustone
 He contributed that
Spearman’s g factor
consists of seven sub
factors
 Verbal
 word fluency
 Number facility
 spatial Visualization
 associative memory
 perceptual speed
 Inductive reasoning
 Cattell
 Fluid Intelligence
 characterized by Biological factors
 Crystallized Intelligence
 More characterized by environment
 Historical Continuum of Phases of
Intelligence Measurement

 Lay theories
 Standard Psychometric Approach
 Pluralization
 Hierarchization
 Contextualization
 Distribution
 Lay Theories
 For most of the part of history there
was no scientific definition of
intelligence.
 Out standing men and women are
labeled as ‘Clever’
 Nobody challenged each other on what
is intelligence.
The standard Psychometric
Approach
 A century ago, psychologists made the
first efforts to define intelligence
technically and to devise test that
measure intelligence.
 However, there is no scientific advance
in psychometric community that really
helped to improve upon the system
 Pluralization and
Hierachization
 Charles Spearman-Lewis Terman tended
to believe that intelligence was best
conceptualized as a single general capacity
for conceptualization and problem solving.
 They sought to demonstrate that a group
of scores on tests reflected a single
underlying factor of ‘General Intelligence’.
 Pluralizaton and
Hierarchization
 Thurstone-Guilford argued for existence
of a number of factors, or components
of intelligence. In broader sense
Howard Gardner agrees with this
tradition but he relies on different
source of evidence. It is not on group of
test but on neurological ,evolutionary
and cross cultured evidence.
 Contextualization
 Is it possible for us to ignore critical
differences among contexts within which
human beings live and develop.
 Do you thing the person living in the same
era as ours is same as in Neolithic and
Homeric era.Part of intelligence can be
attributed to cultures and their attributes
rather than differences among individuals.
 Distribution
 Distribution goes a step further it talks
about relation of person with things and
objects in the immediate environment
rather than on structures and values in
larger context of culture.

 Distribution...
 Traditional View is that intelligence is
carried within one’s head.i.e. it can be
measured in isolation.
 However it does not stop with one’s skin, It
encompasses tools, (paper,pencil,computer
etc) and notional memory such as
colleagues, office files, library etc. We can
say that the Cognition is distributed.
It is not the end of the story
 Arthur Jensen-Eyseneck-Bouchard
 They provided evidence on high
heritability of psychometric
intelligence.The examples of twins reared
apart.
 They felt that there is no need to pay
attention to cultures,contexts and
distribution of intelligence.
 Anderson’s
Electrophysiological View
 They said that intelligence is reflected
a basic property of the nervous system
and can be assessed
electrophysiologically without going
through the paper and pencil tests.
 Anderson has evidence to suggest that
indices of intelligence is found in
infants.
Are we in a collision course?
 Cultural and  Genetic and
distribution nature of Neurological basis of
intelligence, now how intelligence
do we account for the  Speed and flexibility
intelligence expressed of nervous conduction
outside the paper and is largely inborn.And
pencil tests? We call we go by tough
it a tender side of minded approach to
intelligence. intelligence
Expression of Intelligence
 Specific tasks
 Domains
 Disciplines
 There is no pure spatial intelligence, it
is expressed in
 puzzle-solutions,block building or in
passing basket ball for children
 What about adults?
How do we assess their
intelligence?
 They exhibit as chess players, artists or
geometricians
 We have to assess the intelligence by
watching people who are familiar with and
have skills in these pursuits or we can
introduce people to the domain and observe
how well one can move beyond the novice
stage, with or without specific support.
 What are Intelligence,
domains and fields
 At the level of individual we are speaking
about one or more of human intelligences.
They are part of our birth.
 We are born in cultures that house a large
number of domains-diciplines,crafts and
other pursuits in shich one can become
encultured and then can be assessed in
terms of level of competence one has
attained.
Let us go further in this path
 Individual practitioners
 Persons who elect to enter a professional
realm, secure training, and pursue their own
personal and professional goals
 Individual practitioners

 Important points
 Knowledge was evenly distributed among
prehistoric era , in a tribe if a person happens to
know about medicine, he continued to be hunter
but his knowledge is used by community.
 It took thousands of years for the society to
develop the specialized profession.
 Domain
 Knowledge ,Skill, practices, rules and
values captured in various codes.A
culture consists of numerous domains
and domains have ethical dimensions.
 Domain...
 When sufficient knowledge is
accumulated it is codified for smooth
transmission to new practitioners
 Culture has many domains which can
be subdivided into further sub domains
 Mathematics can be subdivided into
Calculus, Algebra etc.
 Domain...
 Domain has both ideas and symbolic
codes.The symbols used by a particular
set of people in a domain has a specific
system that helps them to communicate
with each other and to profession.
 Field
 The role that individuals practice when
working with symbols of the domain;
field also include institutions. A society
consists of numerous fields. There
major roles: elite gatekeepers, expert
practitioners, apprentices and students.
What is the relation between
Intelligence-Domain-Field?
 Think and give your comments
Let us imagine that we do not
know about Intelligence
 What are the roles or end states that are prized by
cultures?
 Hunters
 Fishermen
 Religious leaders
 athletes
 artists
 Musicians
 Poets
 Let us consider three
examples

Pulawat Sailor
Koranic student
Parisian composer
Using computer
 If we want to
encompass the
realm of Human
cognition what we
have to do?
 We have to include wider
Universal set of Competencies
 If you closely observe the competencies
required by the end states we said, they
do not lend themselves to measurement
by standard verbal methods
An Advertisement for
Intelligence test
How do you identify the best?
Thank you very much