The  

Triarchic Theory of
Intelligence 
Robert Sternberg
 Robert Sternberg

Born December 8, 1949 (age 71)

Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Nationality American
Alma mater Yale University
Stanford University
Known for Triarchic theory of intelligence
Triangular theory of love
The Three-Process View
Scientific career
Fields Cognitive psychology
Institutions Oklahoma State University, 
Yale University, Tufts University, 
University of Wyoming, 
Cornell University
 Robert Sternberg believes
that the ability to function
effectively in the real world is
an important indicator of
intelligence
He views intelligence as consisting of three cognitive parts:
a. Processing components
(skills used in problem solving)
b. Contextual components
(links between intelligence and the environment)
c. Experiential components
(mechanisms for modifying intelligence through
experience).
 I.Processing components
 They consist of a metacomponent, a language
acquisition component, and a performance component.
 They are the most basic parts of his model that
learners use to think about and solve problems.
 Sternberg describes these component as analogous to
manager, trainee, and laborer in a company.
 The three components work together to produce a final
product.
 I.Processing components
For example student writing a term paper:
1. Deciding on a topic, planning the paper, and
monitoring progress as its written = meta
component (manager)
2. gathering facts and combines them into related
ideas = knowledge acquisition component
(trainee)
3. doing the actual writing = performance
component (laborer)
 II. Contextual components
These explain how intelligent behavior involves adaptation.In
reaching goals, intelligent people adapt to, change, or select out of
the environment when necessary.
A student trying to succeed in a college course may do the following;
1. adjusts her study strategies in response to a professor's testing
procedures (adapts)
2. she can't clearly hear his presentations, so she moves to the
front of the class (changes the environment)
3. despite these efforts she isn't succeeding, so she drops the class
(selects out of the environment)contextual components help us apply
our intelligence to the solution of everyday, real-word problem.
 III. Experiential components:
Adapting to unique experiences

Sternberg thinks that intelligent behavior

includes:
a. the ability to effectively deal with novel
experiences; and
b. b. the ability to solve familiar problems
efficiently and automatically
An intelligent person relates new experiences
to old and quickly identifies relationships.
 III. Experiential components:
Adapting to unique experiences
Example
A beginning reader encounters the word she. Teacher says,
"shheee.“
Then the reader encounters the word show. Teacher says, "this
word sounds like 'shho.’”
Next the student sees the word ship. He tries pronouncing it
himself: "ship.“
He now has a rule to decode future words. When s and h are
together, they go "shh.“
According to Sternberg, an intelligent child readily recognizes
patterns and soon can use rules automatically. This ability
increases with age.
 Improving intelligence

 Sternberg believes that practice in relating new to existing ideas

improves intelligence.
 Sternberg emphasizes three different kinds of thinking that improve
intelligence through allowing students to process information in
different ways:
 a. analytic- involves comparing, contrasting, critiquing, judging, and
evaluating.
 b. creative- includes investigating, discovering, imagining, and
supposing
 c. practical- includes implementing, applying, using, and seeking
relevance in ideas.
The end……