EARLIER VIEWS OF

INTELLIGENCE

-Bushra Ahmad (16ETM05)

-Fatima Zehra Nizami (16ETM06)
 CONTENTS

• INTRODUCTION
• TRADITIONAL VIEWS
• PSYCHOLOGY AS A DISCIPLINE
• EMERGENCE OF IQ TESTS
• DRAWBACKS OF IQ TESTS
• CONCEPT OF GENERAL INTELLIGENCE
• PIAGET’S VIEW
• THE INFORMATION-PROCESSING APPROACH
• THE SYMBOL SYSTEMS APPROACH
 INTRODUCTION

• Snider (2001:05) – “Before Gardner, intelligence

was thought to be a static, single construct.”

• Gardner (1983):
Lay theories
The Standard Psychometric Approach
Pluralisation and Hierarchisation
 TRADITIONAL VIEWS

• 17th century philosophers (Socrates)

• Language and Logic
• No consideration for other domains
• PHRENOLOGY : Franz Joseph Gall (late 18th
century)
Size of the skull determines intelligence
Localisation view
Counter arguments
 PSYCHOLOGY AS A DISCIPLINE

• 19th century – Wilhelm Wundt (Germany),

William James (America)
• Broad ‘horizontal’ mental faculties – perception,
memory, attention, association, and learning
• Galton (1860) – genetic inheritance of
intelligence
• End of the 19th century – “intelligence
revolution”
 EMERGENCE OF IQ TESTS

• To rank human beings comparing their

performances
• Tasks of sensory discrimination
• 20th century – Alfred Binet and Theodore
Simon
• Used in schools, military, industry, socialising,
etc.
 DRAWBACKS OF IQ TESTS

• In favour of the educated

• Low relevance outside school context
• No consideration of process
• Tasks not related to real life
• Knowledge as ‘crystallised’ rather than ‘fluid’
• Do not tell much about potential for further
development
 CONCEPT OF GENERAL INTELLIGENCE

• Charles Spearman – 1904

• “g” – general property of intelligence
• Gardner (1993, 1999)
Predictive of scholastic success
Fails to predict in non-school contexts
• Gottfredson – 1998
• Interchangeable concepts – g and IQ
 PIAGET’S VIEW

• 1920s – Jean Piaget

• Studied cognitive development in children
• Focus - the chains of reasoning
Assumptions  erroneous conclusions
• Child’s cognitive development stages:
sensorimotor knowledge  mental operations 
symbol systems  concrete operations  formal
operations
 THE INFORMATION-PROCESSING
APPROACH

• An approach of recent years

• Process: eye/ear  mouth/hand
• Detailed explanation of steps used by a child
• Human cognition imitative of computer
processing
• Measures progress along certain lines
• Studies problem solving tasks
THE SYMBOL SYSTEMS APPROACH

• All previous approaches limitations

Logic or linguistic centered
Ignored biology
Did not account for creativity
• 20th century – human symbolic capacities
• Earnst Cassirer, Susanne Langer, Alfred North
Whitehead
• Shift in philosophy
• Ability of human beings to use symbolic
vehicles of thought
• David Feldman – range of domains of
intelligence
Universal
Culture-specific
Unique
• Individuals progress within a domain
 REFERENCES
• Gardner, Howard. (2011) Frames of Mind –
The Theory of Multiple Intelligences.
• Hyland, Aine. (2000) Multiple Intelligences –
Curriculum and Assessment Project.
• Botelho, Maria de Rozario de Lima. (2003)
Multiple Intelligences Theory In English
Language Teaching.
THANK YOU
!
PRESENTED BY:-
BUSHRA AHMAND [16ETM05]
FATIMA ZEHRA NIZAMI [16ETM06]