Psychology › Personality & intelligence › Intelligence and the g factor
Gardner's multiple intelligences
1983· Theory or model
Weak or failed to replicateFamous but not holding up in careful repeats.
Howard Gardner's 1983 theory that people have several separate intelligences, such as musical, spatial and interpersonal, rather than one general ability.
See it on the Psychology map →What it says
In Frames of Mind (1983), Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner proposed seven intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal; he later added naturalist. He drew on brain-injury cases, prodigies and savants, who can excel in one area while weak in others. Teachers embraced it as a way to value every child's strengths. But Gardner offered few tests, and when researchers measured these abilities, most correlated positively, as the general-factor view predicts.
Why it matters
It broadened how schools talk about talent and fueled debate over what counts as intelligence. Scientifically, it has not displaced g.
The evidence
A 2006 study by Beth Visser, Michael Ashton and Philip Vernon found most of Gardner's intelligences overlap with g; reviewers such as Lynn Waterhouse found little direct empirical support.
Open questions
Much of the dispute is definitional: are musical and athletic skills 'intelligences' or talents? Gardner says his theory was never meant to be measured with standard tests.
Connections (2)
▸Learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic) are often confused with Gardner's multiple intelligencesWell replicated
The connection
Both ideas swept schools in the 1990s and promised to tailor teaching to each child, so many teachers merged them, calling a child a 'musical' or 'kinesthetic' learner. Gardner himself says they differ: his intelligences are abilities, while learning styles claim people learn best through a preferred sense.
Who showed it and when
US and UK classrooms from the 1990s onward. Gardner publicly separated the ideas, notably in a 2013 Washington Post essay.
The evidence
Teacher surveys show the mix-up is common: a 2012 study found over 90 percent of UK and Dutch teachers believed the learning-styles claim.
Open questions
Why such weakly supported ideas spread so widely in education, and whether anything in them, such as varying teaching formats, still helps students.
▸Gardner's multiple intelligences challenged the single-g view of Intelligence and the g factorWeak or failed to replicate
The connection
Gardner rejected a single general factor, arguing for separate intelligences that vary independently. Psychometricians responded that when his intelligences are actually tested, most correlate positively and overlap with g, though musical and bodily skills are less tied to it. The challenge popularized broader views of talent without overturning g.
Who showed it and when
Gardner's Frames of Mind, Harvard, 1983; responses included a 2006 Canadian study by Beth Visser, Michael Ashton and Philip Vernon.
How solid is it?
Visser's team tested about 200 adults and found the more academic intelligences overlapped strongly with g. Gardner offered little direct evidence for independence.
Open questions
Whether intelligence should include music, movement and social skill is partly a matter of definition, which data alone cannot settle.