Definition
The theory of multiple intelligences, proposed by Howard Gardner in his 1983 book Frames of Mind, holds that human intelligence is better described as a set of relatively independent cognitive capacities than as a single general factor. Gardner initially identified seven intelligences — linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal — and later added naturalistic and (tentatively) existential intelligence to the list.
Each intelligence has, in Gardner's account, its own developmental trajectory, characteristic problem-solving processes, and neural correlates. A person can be highly developed in one and underdeveloped in another. The theory was a deliberate challenge to the dominant view that IQ — a single number derived from a standardized test — captures most of what is meaningful about human cognitive ability.
Why it matters
How it works
Gardner argued that each intelligence meets a set of criteria: it can be isolated by brain damage; it has identifiable core operations; it shows a distinctive developmental history with definable expert end-states; it has evolutionary plausibility; and it can be assessed through dedicated tasks. The intelligences are not learning styles or personality traits — they are capacities for processing specific kinds of information and solving specific kinds of problems.
Critics, particularly from the psychometric tradition that gave us IQ, point out that scores on Gardner's proposed intelligences tend to correlate positively with one another (the g factor or general intelligence), suggesting the intelligences are not as independent as the theory claims. Supporters reply that even partial independence justifies a richer model than single-number IQ allows, and that the educational and cultural value of recognizing diverse strengths is independent of whether the intelligences are perfectly separable. The debate has not been resolved, but Gardner's framework has had lasting practical influence in how schools talk about student ability.