Single Intelligence versus Multiple Intelligences
The attempt to understand different learning and thinking styles is based on different arguments with respect to the nature of intelligence. Such arguments traditionally fall into two camps of thought, those who argue in favor of a single intelligence and those who argue in favor of multiple intelligences. At the turn of the 20th century, Charles Spearman conducted tests that resulted in his general intelligence factor, or ôgö theory of single intelligence (Paik 2003, 2). Near the end of the 20th century, Howard Gardner proposed a new theory of intelligence, including a model of multiple intelligences in which he theorized there are actually seven types of intelligence: linguistic, musical, spatial, bodily, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and logico-mathematical (Paik 2003).
SpearmanÆs single intelligence model was based on the result of studies he conducted on intelligence that demonstrated a correlation between different tests of cognitive ability. In other words, if an individual did well on one type of tests, he or she also did well on other types of tests administered. This led Spearman to conclude that ôcognitive events do, like those of physics, admit throughout of being reduced to a small number of definitely formulatable principles in the sense of ultimate lawsö (Paik 2003, 3). The positive correlation that Spearman found in his research was labeled the ôpositive manifoldö or the ôgeneral intelligence factorö commonly referred to as ôgö in single intelligence models.
In the 1980s, Howard Gardner conducted studies focused on the cognitive development of children at HarvardÆs Project Zero. He compared these studies on cognition with comparable studies on a distinct population, a group of stroke victims afflicted with aphasia. In his work detailing the outcome of these studies, Intelligence Reframed, Gardner lays the foundation for his mod
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