Theories

and
Definitions
of Intelligence
 INTELLIGENCE
DEFINITIONS OF
THEORIES AND
1 . The Bin e t S im o n Sc a l e
2 . ( 18 9 0 s) Sp e a r ma n ’sTw o - f a c t o r The o r y o f Int e l l i g e nc e
( 19 0 4 )
3 . Te r ma n’s St a nf o r d Bin e t Ind i vi d ua l In t e l l i g e n c e Te st
( 19 0 6 ) Th o r nd i ke ' s St i mul us Re sp o nse The o r y ( 192 0 s)
4. Tho r nd i ke ' s st i mul u s r e sp o nse t h e o r y ( 192 0 s)
5 . L. L Th ur st o ne ' s Mul t i p l e f a c t o r s Th o e r y o f
Int e l l i g e nc e ( 19 3 8 )
6 . C a t e l l ' s The o r y o n F lu i d a nd C r yst a l l i ze d
Int e l l i g e nc e G ui l f o r d ' s Th e o r y o n t he st r uc t ur e o n
t he i nt e l l e c t ( 19 67)
7 . G ui f l f o r d ' s t h e o r y o n t h e st r uc t ur e o f t he i nt e l l e c t
( 19 67)
8. St e r nb e r g ' s t r i a r c h i c The o r y o f Int e l l i g e nc e ( 198 2 )
9 . G a r d n e r ; s The o r y o f Mul t i p l e In t e l l i g e n c e
WHY DID THEY
MAKE IT??
•A push for compulsory education
•To identify students with special education
•To measure the intellectual development of
young children ages 3-12
•To measure the ability of children to think
and reason
SPEARMAN’S TWO
FACTOR THEORY OF
INTELLIGENCE (1904)
Charles Spearman,a British
psychologist(1863-1945),advanced the two-
factor theory of intelligence “g” and “s”.
The performance of any intellectual
act requires some combination of “g” general
factor which is available to the same
individual degree for all intellectual acts and
“s” or specific factors which are in specific
to that act and which varies strenght from one
act to another.
•Intelligence comprises both a single
pervasive reasoning ability, A general
factor, that is used on a wide variety of
tasks and a number of narrow abilities,
specific factors, involved in executing
particular tasks.
CHARACTERISTICS OF “G” fACTOR
It is universal in born ability
It is general mental energy
It is constant
The amount of “G” factor differs ftom
individual to individual
CHARACTERISTICS OF “s” fACTOR
It is learned and acquired in the
environment
It varies from activity in the same
individual
Individuals differ in amount of “S”
ability
“g” factor represents this when
we respond to any situations or perform intellectual task,
our general mental ability of “g” factor is mainly
responsible for it and our specific ability in that particular
task is responsible for the rest,
SPEARMAN’S TWO FACTOR THEORY OR ELECTRIC THEORY
•The theory explains that if one knows how a person
performs on one task that is highly saturated with “g”,
one can safely predict a similar level of performance
for another highly “g” saturated task. Prediction of
performance on task with high “s” factors is less
accurate. The most important information to have about
a person’s intellectual ability is an estimate of his “g”
TERMAN’S STANDFORD
BINET INDIVIDUAL
INTELLIGENCE TEST(1906)

Lewis Madison Terman,an

American cognitive psychologist,published a
revised and perfected Binet-Simon Scale.
In 1916 he adopted William Stern’s
suggestion that that the ratio between mental
& chronological age be taken as a unitary
measure of intelligence multiplied by 100 to
get rid of the decimals.
THORNDIKE’S STIMULUS
RESPONSE THEORY (1920)

Psychologist & his students used

1920’s he developed a multi factored

test of intelligence that consisted of
completion, arithmetic, vocabulary, and
direction tests(CAVD). It became the
foundation of modern intelligence test.
Thorndike drew an important distinction among 3 broad classes of intellectual functioning:

1. Abstract intelligence- Standard Intelligence Tests

2. Mechanical Intelligence- ability to visualize relationship among
objects & physical world works.
3. Social Intelligence - ability to function successfully interpersonal
situations.
2 most basic intelligences:
L.L THURSTONE’S MULTIPLE
FACTORS THEORY OF
INTELLIGENCE (1938)

Louis L. Thurstone was an

American psychometrician who studied
intelligence test & tests of perception
through factor analysis. His MFTI
identified the 7 primary mental
abilities
7 primary mental abilities:
ABILITY NAME DESCRIPTION
S –Space Reasoning about visual scenes
V- Verbal Comprehension Understanding verbal
statements
W- Word Fluency Producing verbal statements
N- Number Facility Dealing with numbers
P- Perceptual Speed Recognizing visual patterns
M- Rote Memory Memorization
R- Reasoning Dealing with novel problems
CATELL’S THEORY ON FLUID
AND CRYSTALLIZED
INTELLIGENCE

Raymond B. Cattell, a British-

American psychologist theorized that
there are 2 types of intelligence.
The Fluid Intelligence
and the Crystalized Intelligence.
FLUID INTELLIGENCE
Is essentially nonverbal & relatively culture free. It
involves related to mental
operations and process on capacity, decay, selection and storage of
information. It increase until adolescence.
B. CRYSTALLIZED INTELLIGENCE
It develops through the exercise of fluid intelligence or a
product of acquisition of knowledge and skills that are strongly
dependent upon exposure to culture.
It continues to increase through middle adulthood.
GUILFORD’S THEORY ON
THE STRUCTURE OF THE
INTELLECT (1967)

J.P Guilford, an American psychologist ,advanced a

general theory of human intelligence whose major
application is for educational research, personnel
selection & placement and education of gifted and
talented.(SOI ) advances that human intelligence is
composed of 180 separate mental abilities.
4 TYPES OF CONTENTS ARE
1. Figural-senses
2. Symbolic-letters, numbers, symbols, designs
3. Semantic-words & ideas
4. Behavioral-actions & expressions
5 Kinds of Operations are:
1. COGNITION- ability to gain, recognize & didcover knowledge.
2. MEMORY- ability to retain, store,retrieve & recall the contents of
thoughts.
3. Divergent production- ability to produce a variety of ideas, or
solution to a problem.
4. Convergent Production- ability to produce a single best solution to
a problem.
5. EVALUATION- ability to render a judgment & decide whether the
intellectual contents are correct or wrong.
The six kinds of products are:

1. units that come in single number, letter or word;

2.classes or a higher order concept, for example, men and women people;
3.relations or connections between and among classes and concepts;
4.systems or the process of ordering or classification of relations;
5.transformation or the process of altering or restructuring of intellectual content;
and
6.implication or the process making inferences from separate pieces if information.
The following examples illustrate three closely related abilities that differ in terms of operation,
content and product.

1. Evaluation of semantic units or EMU is measured by the ideational fluency

tests in which respondents are asked to make judgments about concepts. For example,

2. Divergent production of semantic units or DMU would require the respondent

to list all the items he or she can think of that are hard and round.
3. Divergent production of symbolic units or DPU involves a different
content category. For example:
STERNBERG’S TRIARCHIC
THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE
(1982)

Robert Sternberg of Yale University

Hence,
with higher intellectual capabilities, as in the case of
children and youth who are gifted and talented,
almost every task can be achieved at a high level of
performance.
The triarchic theory of intelligence seeks to explain in an integrative way the
relationship between:

1. Intelligence and the internal world of the individual, or the mental mechanisms
that underlie intelligent behavior.
2.intelligence and external world of the individual, or the use of these mental
mechanisms in everyday in life in order to attain an intelligent fit to the
environment; and
3. intelligence and experience, or the mediating role of one’s passage through
life between the internal and external worlds of the individuals.
Sternberg calls his theory triarchic because intelligence has three main parts or dimensions:
a contextual part, an experiential part, and a componential part.

Contextual Intelligence Experiential Intelligence Componential Intelligence

(PRACTICAL) (CREATIVE) (ANALYTICAL)
Contextual Intelligence (Practical)
In simple words, practical intelligence can be defined as
The ability of a person to adapt in an environment or
change it accordingly to best suit the personal needs is dubbed
as practical intelligence. Another way to understand such type of
intelligence is as Dealing with the everyday
tasks in the best possible manner shows the person’s
intelligence. A person, who is street-smart, or high on practical
intelligence, is more able to cope with concrete
situations.
Creative intelligence can be further divided into two
categories.
 Novelty : This concerns the ability of a person to
deal with the problem for the first time.
 Automation : This concerns the ability of a
person to automatically perform the repeated
tasks.
Componential – Analytical Intelligence
Analytical Intelligence can also be referred to as being
This form of intelligence is more in
terms with the traditional definitions of IQ and academic
achievement. It’s also called componential intelligence.
Because of its analytical nature, the person with high
analytical intelligence is These
people are generally more able to see the solutions not
normally seen, because of their abstract thinking and
evaluation skills.
 SIX SIGNIFICANT METACOMPONENTS
“Metacomponents form the basis for developmental changes in
intelligence. All activation and feedback are filtered through these
elements, and if they do not perform their function well, then it will not
matter very much what the other kinds of components do”.
1. recognition of what has to be done; understanding the task at hand;
2.selecting performance components and encoding important features of a task;
3. selecting an appropriate mental representation visually or verbally;
4.organizing performance components by formulating plans for organizing and
sequencing the steps or procedures in the process;
5. deciding how to allocate attention and resources; and
6. monitoring one’s performance.
GARDNER’S THEORY OF
MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
(1983)

Howard Gardner is a psychologist and professor at

Harvard University Graduate School of Education and
director of Project Zone Based on his studies of
many7 people from different walks of life in everyday
circumstances and professions, he developed his
breakthrough theory of multiple intelligences
or MI.
He did a massive synthesis of a, lot of research including

He did brain research on stroke victims, prodigies, people

with autism and even idiot He had authored
Gardner was in Manila
in April, 2005 for the first Philippine convention on Mi with
the theme
“Changing minds: teaching and Parenting”