Is there more than one kind of intelligence?

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Spearman’s ‘general intelligence factor (g) influenced a particular British view of intelligence as one measurable, fixed quantity that is innate and can be seen in the ability to perform a variety of cognitive tasks. This idea has been expanded upon by Cyril Burt and Philip E. Vernon who identified a number of abilities that lie somewhere between g and s. Later, L.L. Thurston developed a model of seven distinct abilities – Verbal Comprehension, Verbal Fluency, Mathematical Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Spatial Awareness, Associative Memory, Memory, and Perceptual Speed – where g is the mean of these abilities. However, this idea was altogether rejected by Guilford. According to J. P. Guilford, the American psychologist, there are three different aspects involved in any cognitive task: Content (what needs to be achieved), Operations (how the task should be performed), and Product (the result). There are five different types of content, five different types of operations, and six different types of products. When these combine, they give a total of 150 different skills.

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