Week 13 Post 1

Charles Spearberg proposed the idea that intelligence is one single entity and that people vary in the levels of general ability.  He believes that intelligence can be measured by looking at various abilities, including test scores from vocabulary, memory and reasoning to combine them for their IQ score.  Robert Sternberg disagrees with this and proposed that intelligence has three fundamental forms: analytic, creative, and practical.  Analytic intelligence involves the mental processes that make learning, remembering, and thinking possible.  This type of intelligence can be tested by multiple choice tests and brief short answer questions.  Creative intelligence involves being able to be intellectually flexible and innovative.  This type of intelligence can be tested by writing a short story or planning an advertising campaign.  High scores are earned by people with unusual and creative ideas.  Practical intelligence involves skills used in every day life.  There is no true testing for practical intelligence.  One way practical intelligence can be tested is questions describing an actual situation and the person must say how they would react to the situation.  I found this interesting for two reasons.  I found it interesting due to the fact that intelligence has transformed from one entity to two.  I also found it interesting because I can relate to these three types of intelligence.  I now understand how and why professors use different types of questions on their exams to test our analytic, creative, and practical intelligence.