# Cognitive and Multiple Intelligences

Psychology I · Individual Differences · https://tryals.app/learn/psychology-i/cognitive-and-multiple-intelligences

## Beyond a Single Number

**Howard Gardner**'s **Multiple Intelligences** theory challenges the idea that intelligence is a single IQ score. He proposed roughly eight distinct, independent faculties tied to different neurological systems.

| Intelligence | Focus / Description |
| --- | --- |
| **Linguistic** | Language and words |
| **Logical-Mathematical** | Numbers and abstract logic |
| **Spatial** | Visualizing and manipulating space |
| **Musical** | Rhythm, pitch, and sound |
| **Bodily-Kinesthetic** | Physical movement and coordination |
| **Interpersonal** | Understanding and relating to others |
| **Intrapersonal** | Understanding oneself |
| **Naturalistic** | Classifying patterns in nature |

**Pitfall:** Critics note these categories lack strong empirical support and overlap heavily with personality or talent constructs rather than pure intelligence.

## The Triarchic Approach

**Robert Sternberg**'s **Triarchic Theory of Successful Intelligence** proposes three distinct components rather than many separate domains:

| Component | Description & Role |
| --- | --- |
| **Analytical (componential)** | Traditional academic problem-solving measured by IQ tests |
| **Creative (experiential)** | Dealing with novel situations and generating original ideas |
| **Practical (contextual)** | Street smarts; adapting to and shaping real-world environments |

**Common pitfall:** Assuming these theories claim traditional IQ tests are worthless. Both Gardner and Sternberg argue traditional tests are simply too **narrow**, missing creative and practical abilities entirely.

## Practice questions

7 of this lesson's 12 practice questions, with answers. The full set is in the app.

### 1. Select every statement that is TRUE about these theories.

A. The theory reshaped classrooms far more than it convinced psychometricians.
B. Gardner's intelligences include linguistic, spatial, and musical.
C. Both theorists argue traditional IQ tests are completely worthless.
D. Sternberg said traditional tests capture mainly the analytical component.
E. Sternberg's practical intelligence is often called 'street smarts'.

**Answer:** A. The theory reshaped classrooms far more than it convinced psychometricians.; B. Gardner's intelligences include linguistic, spatial, and musical.; D. Sternberg said traditional tests capture mainly the analytical component.; E. Sternberg's practical intelligence is often called 'street smarts'.

**Why:** Gardner's intelligences, Sternberg's practical 'street smarts', his point about the analytical component, and the limited testing support for Gardner are all true. Neither calls IQ tests worthless - the one false option.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/cognitive-and-multiple-intelligences/select-every-statement-that-is-true-about-these-theories

### 2. Gardner's theory has been enormously influential in schools and has attracted little support from psychometric research. Why is a theory's classroom popularity not evidence for it?

A. Because teachers lack the training to evaluate psychological theories, so their adoption carries no weight.
B. Because a framework can be useful to teach with and still be false.
C. Because educational practice and psychological theory concern different subjects, so evidence from one is irrelevant to the other.
D. Because the theory was designed for education rather than for research, so psychometric evidence does not apply to it.

**Answer:** B. Because a framework can be useful to teach with and still be false.

**Why:** The framework encourages teachers to look for strengths a narrow measure would miss, and those are good instincts whether or not there are eight independent intelligences. The psychometric evidence bears on the structural claim, and there the record is thin. Adopting a theory because its consequences are appealing is not inference.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/cognitive-and-multiple-intelligences/gardners-theory-has-been-enormously-influential-in-schools-and-has

### 3. General cognitive ability predicts job performance across almost every occupation studied, better than interviews or personality. Why is this the most awkward finding in the field?

A. Because the finding fails to replicate outside laboratory settings
B. Because it implies job performance is fixed and unimprovable
C. Because it contradicts the evidence that experience matters at work
D. Because the same measure has a long history of misuse

**Answer:** D. Because the same measure has a long history of misuse

**Why:** The predictive validity is not seriously disputed; what it licenses is. A measure that works, carries a eugenic history and shows contested group differences forces the distinction between an empirical claim and a policy, and collapsing the two is what makes this area so reliably badly argued.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/cognitive-and-multiple-intelligences/general-cognitive-ability-predicts-job-performance-across-almost

### 4. Gardner proposes several independent intelligences. The standard psychometric objection is that scores on almost any two cognitive tests correlate positively. Why is that correlation a problem for his theory specifically?

A. Because independent abilities should be uncorrelated, and are not.
B. Because correlations show that Gardner's intelligences do not exist, since only uncorrelated abilities are real.
C. Because Gardner claims his intelligences are perfectly correlated, and the data show they are not.
D. Because the correlations are artefacts of testing, which Gardner accepts, so the objection has been withdrawn.

**Answer:** A. Because independent abilities should be uncorrelated, and are not.

**Why:** The objection is a prediction test: genuinely independent abilities should correlate near zero, and what is found is the positive manifold, the very observation from which Spearman inferred g. Gardner replies that standard batteries run through language and logic and barely measure several of his intelligences, so the matrix is drawn from a narrow slice.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/cognitive-and-multiple-intelligences/gardner-proposes-several-independent-intelligences-the-standard

### 5. Order these from the NARROWEST view of intelligence to the BROADEST.

**Answer:**

1. Spearman: a single general factor g
2. Cattell-Horn: two components, fluid and crystallized
3. Sternberg: reasoning, invention and street sense
4. Gardner: eight or so abilities, most of them untested by schools

**Why:** Ordered by number of proposed components: Spearman (1), Cattell-Horn (2), Sternberg (3), Gardner (~8). The sequence traces a move from a single unified intelligence toward an increasingly pluralistic view.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/cognitive-and-multiple-intelligences/order-these-from-the-narrowest-view-of-intelligence-to-the-broadest

### 6. Gardner and Sternberg both argue that traditional IQ tests measure something real but too narrow, rather than that IQ tests measure nothing worthwhile at all.

**Answer:** True

**Why:** True. Both theorists accept that traditional tests measure something real (the analytical or linguistic/logical facets) but argue they are too narrow, missing creative, practical, or other abilities. The critique is about breadth, not worthlessness.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/cognitive-and-multiple-intelligences/gardner-and-sternberg-both-argue-that-traditional-iq-tests-measure

### 7. Sort each claim by the theory it belongs to.

**Answer:**

- Gardner (Multiple Intelligences): Ability comes in many kinds, and school notices only a few of them, Counts knowing your way around a forest, or around other people, as ability, Musical and bodily-kinesthetic are separate intelligences
- Sternberg (Triarchic): Intelligence has three components: analytical, creative, practical, Rates the person who reads a room well alongside the one who reads a proof

**Why:** Roughly eight distinct intelligences (musical, naturalistic, interpersonal) is Gardner; the three-component analytical/creative/practical structure is Sternberg. The number and kind of divisions distinguish the two theories.

Page: https://tryals.app/practice/psychology-i/cognitive-and-multiple-intelligences/sort-each-claim-by-the-theory-it-belongs-to