Multiple Intelligences test

Since we’ve recently had “Know your worldview,” how about “Know your intelligences”?

In the 1980s, psychologist Howard Gardner developed the theory of “multiple intelligences,” aka MI theory. There’s quite a lot to it - it’s rooted in neurobiological research on impaired brain function and studies of savants – it also has its critics, but it’s still pretty interesting. The 7 intelligences are said to be: verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal (Gardner has since added “naturalist” and the possibility of “spiritualist”). They’re not mutually exclusive - people can be strong in one or several intelligences. Among other things, MI theory highlights the verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematical “bias” in IQ testing (and in education, where it’s had a huge effect in recent years). BTW, a zillion people have tried to tack on other intelligences (like “emotional intelligence” or so-called “EQ”), but these have zip to do with MI theory.

Want to see where you stand? There are a few online multiple intelligences tests. None of them are sanctioned by Gardner, and they can’t really measure aptitude (just predisposition) - at 80 or so questions, they can also take a while to complete. Still, the results can be fascinating. If you’re interested, here’s a sample test:

http://www.mitest.com/o7inte~1.htm

I think my Spatial score might be higher, and Linguistic score lower, but otherwise the results are reflective of other tests I’ve done and what I know of myself.

[quote]The Seven Intelligence Areas

Linguistic: 9
Logical-Mathematical: 7
Spatial: 5
Bodily-Kinesthetic: 8
Musical: 3
Interpersonal: 6
Intrapersonal: 10

A Short Definition of your Highest Score

Intrapersonal - the ability to assess one’s own strengths, weaknesses, talents, and interests and use them to set goals, to understand oneself to be of service to others, to form and develop concepts and theories based on an examination of oneself, and to reflect on one’s inner moods, intuitions, and temperament and to use them to create or express a personal view. Possible vocations that use the intrapersonal intelligence include planner, small business owner, psychologist, artist, religious leader, and writer. [/quote]

You forgot to say that it says you are a Leo with O positive blood.

Thanks for posting that link, STG!

My best scores were musical and linguistic, but my spatial and kinaesthetic ones were rubbish. So maybe that explains why my tones in Mandarin are usually OK, but I can’t dance!

Right, sorry jd.
Virgo, (wood) Tiger, O negative (I think).
I could post a palm print, if anyone is willing and able to read it for me. :wink:

I can read it for a kiss.

It’s a more than a little difficult for me to take this quiz seriously.

[quote]The Seven Intelligence Areas

Linguistic: 7

Logical-Mathematical: 5

Spatial: 2

Bodily-Kinesthetic: 3

Musical: 2

Interpersonal: 2

Intrapersonal: 8

A Short Definition of your Highest Score

Intrapersonal - the ability to assess one’s own strengths, weaknesses, talents, and interests and use them to set goals, to understand oneself to be of service to others, to form and develop concepts and theories based on an examination of oneself, and to reflect on one’s inner moods, intuitions, and temperament and to use them to create or express a personal view. Possible vocations that use the intrapersonal intelligence include planner, small business owner, psychologist, artist, religious leader, and writer. [/quote]

The Seven Intelligence Areas

Linguistic: 9

Logical-Mathematical: 0

Spatial: 6

Bodily-Kinesthetic: 11

Musical: 11

Interpersonal: 8

Intrapersonal: 8

A Short Definition of your Highest Score

Bodily-Kinesthetic - the ability to use the body and tools to take effective action or to construct or repair, to build rapport to console and persuade, and to support others, to plan strategically or to critique the actions of the body, to appreciate the aesthetics of the body and to use those values to create new forms of expression. Possible vocations that use the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence include mechanic, trainer, contractor, craftsperson, tool and dye maker, coach, counselor, salesperson, sports analyst, professional athlete, dance critic, sculptor, choreographer, actor, dancer or puppeteer.

Musical - the ability to understand and develop musical technique, to respond emotionally to music and to work together to use music to meet the needs of others, to interpret musical forms and ideas, and to create imaginative and expressive performances and compositions. Possible vocations that use the musical intelligence include technician, music teacher, instrument maker, choral, band, and orchestral performer or conductor, music critic, aficionado, music collector, composer, conductor, and individual or small group performer.

Your Personal Evaluation

The Seven Intelligence Areas

Linguistic: 8

Logical-Mathematical: 9

Spatial: 10

Bodily-Kinesthetic: 8

Musical: 11

Interpersonal: 4

Intrapersonal: 11

A Short Definition of your Highest Score

Musical - the ability to understand and develop musical technique, to respond emotionally to music and to work together to use music to meet the needs of others, to interpret musical forms and ideas, and to create imaginative and expressive performances and compositions. Possible vocations that use the musical intelligence include technician, music teacher, instrument maker, choral, band, and orchestral performer or conductor, music critic, aficionado, music collector, composer, conductor, and individual or small group performer.

Intrapersonal - the ability to assess one’s own strengths, weaknesses, talents, and interests and use them to set goals, to understand oneself to be of service to others, to form and develop concepts and theories based on an examination of oneself, and to reflect on one’s inner moods, intuitions, and temperament and to use them to create or express a personal view. Possible vocations that use the intrapersonal intelligence include planner, small business owner, psychologist, artist, religious leader, and writer.

Hmmm…that would be mine.

[quote=“Seven Intelligences Checklist”]The Seven Intelligence Areas

Linguistic: 10

Logical-Mathematical: 12

Spatial: 7

Bodily-Kinesthetic: 11

Musical: 7

Interpersonal: 7

Intrapersonal: 9

A Short Definition of your Highest Score

Logical-Mathematical - the ability to use numbers to compute and describe, to use mathematical concepts to make conjectures, to apply mathematics in personal daily life, to apply mathematics to data and construct arguments, to be sensitive to the patterns, symmetry, logic, and aesthetics of mathematics, and to solve problems in design and modeling. Possible vocations that use the logical-mathematics intelligence include accountant, bookkeeper, statistician, tradesperson, homemaker, computer programmer, scientist, composer, engineer, inventor, or designer.[/quote]

Maybe the guy that put it together is one of those interpersonal touchy feely type of guys/gals (though I find gals are almost always touchy feely.)

I went to see this guy speak once in the way back when. My mom dragged me up front to talk to him and she says “My son doesn’t want to go to college, what can you tell him to make him want to go?” (or something like that.) He said “He’ll go when he’s ready to go.” (or something like that.)

Still not ready :smiley:

[quote]The Seven Intelligence Areas

Linguistic: 6

Logical-Mathematical: 7

Spatial: 8

Bodily-Kinesthetic: 7

Musical: 6

Interpersonal: 4

Intrapersonal: 7

A Short Definition of your Highest Score

Spatial - the ability to perceive and represent the visual-spatial world accurately, to arrange color, line, shape, form and space to meet the needs of others, to interpret and graphically represent visual or spatial ideas, to transform visual or spatial ideas into imaginative and expressive creations. Possible vocations that use spatial intelligence include illustrator, artist, guide, photographer, interior decorator, painter, clothing designer, weaver, builder, architect, art critic, inventor, or cinematographer.[/quote]

:astonished: all very odd since i don’t consider myself “arty”.but i wish i was…

Maybe it’s time to feed that arty gene. I’ve decided that I’m going to start drawing/doodling a little bit every day (this was inspired from watch the kindergarten kids draw.)

Linguistic: 9

Logical-Mathematical: 7

Spatial: 10

Bodily-Kinesthetic: 4

Musical: 12

Interpersonal: 4

Intrapersonal: 10

I have never been a big fan of the multiple intelligences theory. It’s simply a matter of what you’re good at. Not an “intelligence” thing. Too many people are so worried because they aren’t considered intelligent so they make up other kinds of “intelligences” like “emotional intelligence” “social intelligence”, etc. Slapping the word “intelligence” onto any term is just another bit of the feel-good, rah-rah, we’re all special warm-fuzzy psychological bullshit people are feeding into nowadays.

I suppose since I have a low kinesthetic intelligence, I can call myself kinesthetically-retarded and apply for special government funds.

This is a seriously dumb test. I mean as soon as they let each person interpret their own strengths and weaknesses without having a set standard you lose all scientific credibility. Of course the person that made it probably “failed” an IQ test.

I have different issues with MI theory, but I will say that a lot of off the cuff dismissals wholly fail to address the science behind it. Gardner’s criteria for determining what constitutes an intelligence, after all, are quite strict. In very abbreviated form, they are: potential isolation by brain damage (evidence from neuropsychology that a faculty can be destroyed or spared in isolation); the existence of idiots savants, prodigies, and other exceptional individuals; an identifiable core operation or set of operations; a distinctive developmental history, along with a definable set of expert ‘end-state’ performances; an evolutionary history and evolutionary plausibility; support form experimental psychological tasks; support from psychometric findings; and susceptibility to encoding in a symbol system. The criteria are applied to each candidate intelligence, and together weed out a great many (like, as I mentioned before, “emotional” intelligence - which simply cannot be isolated by the above criteria). Passing the first criterion is arguably the hardest. For example, the frontal lobes are prominent in interpersonal knowledge – damage there causes personality changes without generally affecting problem solving (e.g. Pick’s disease, a frontally oriented form of presenile dementia, demonstrates far more degeneration in social graces than Alzheimer’s, which attacks posterior brain zones).

As to whether it’s all just a matter of “what you’re good at,” Gardner had this to say:

Incidentally, Taiwan’s schools have jumped on the MI bandwagon, and the MoE now goes to great pains to describe its ongoing efforts in MI terms. In the end, though, it’s kind of like Bloom’s taxonomy – just another oft cited / criticized but seldom actually read work of educational psychology.

Of course I should reiterate from my OP that online MI “tests” (there are others) aren’t sanctioned by Gardner - and if anything they reflect predisposition rather than aptitude. MI aptitude tests are indeed out there - it’s just that they refrain from testing one intelligence in terms of another: for example, you can’t test musical aptitude in verbal-linguistic terms. I figured just as many people would hate the idea as find it interesting… :wink:

Bloom’s taxonomy and so-called “multiple intelligence” both have a place in learning, but I simply disagree with the name. Multiple talents, multiple skills, but not intelligence.

Meaning that verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematical are also “talents” or “skills” and not “intelligence,” right? Gardner’s point was either privilege all of them or none at all. The problem is that the traditional notion of “intelligence” built into IQ tests (Stanford-Binet, Wechsler) and many educational systems is biased in favor of the verbal and mathematical, whereas modern neuropsychology shows them to merely be two of several whatever you wanna call em.

In the end, there are lots of ideas of what constitutes “intelligence.” There’s Gardner, long before him there was “g” (general intelligence), recently Sternberg’s triarchic theory (componential, experiential, and contextual intelligence), and several others that have slipped my mind.

Well, I think the self-assessment scoring is pretty weak.

But I like MI theory in general. I suspect it will need serious revision before science begins to approach an accurate description of reality, but I think it’s important to recognize differen sorts of intelligence.

I doubt Mozart could have built a space shuttle, but there’s question he was a genius.