Theories
Cognitive-contextual theories

Cognitive-contextual theories deal with the way that cognitive processes operate in various environmental contexts. In 1983 Gardner proposed a theory of what he called "multiple intelligences." Earlier theorists had gone so far as to contend that intelligence comprises multiple abilities.

But Gardner went a step further, arguing that there is no single intelligence. In his view, intelligences are multiple, including, at a minimum, linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligence. Some of these intelligences are quite similar to the abilities proposed by the psychometric theorists, but others are not.

For example, the idea of a musical intelligence is relatively new, as is the idea of a bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, which encompasses the particular faculties of athletes and dancers. Gardner derived his listing of intelligences from a variety of sources, including studies of cognitive processing, of brain damage, of exceptional individuals, and of cognition across cultures. Gardner proposed that whereas most concepts of intelligence had been ethnocentric and culturally biased, his was universal, based upon biologic and cross-cultural data as well as upon data derived from the cognitive performance of a wide array of people.

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