Practical and Creative Intelligence

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Diversity in Intelligence
At the same time, alternative tests of cognitive ability must also be explored, particularly those that include assessment of problem-solving skills and other abilities not
measured by most intelligence tests (e.g., Sternberg & Kaufman, 1998). If new tests
show smaller between-group differences than traditional tests but have equal or better
predictive validity, many of the issues discussed in this section will have been resolved.
So far, efforts in this direction have not been successful.
■ What conclusions are most reasonable?
The effort to reduce unfair cultural biases in tests is well founded, but “culture-fair”
tests will be of little benefit if they fail to predict academic or occupational success as
well as conventional tests do (Anastasi & Urbina, 1997; Sternberg, 1985). Whether one
considers this situation good or bad, fair or unfair, it is important for people to have
the information and skills that are valued by the culture in which they live and work.
So using tests that are designed to predict success in such areas seems reasonable as
long as the tests accurately measure a person’s skills and access to culturally valued
information.
In other words, there is probably no value-free, or experience-free, or culture-free
way to measure the concept known as intelligence. The reason is that the concept is
defined in terms of the behaviors that a culture values and that are developed through
experience in that culture (Sternberg, 1985, 2004; Laboratory of Comparative Human
Cognition, 1982). This conclusion has led some researchers to worry less about how
cultural influences might “contaminate” tests of cognitive abilities and to focus instead
on how to help people develop the abilities that are required for success in school and
society. As mentioned earlier, if more attention were focused on combating poverty,
poor schools, inadequate nutrition, lack of health care, and other conditions that result
in lower average IQ scores and reduced economic opportunities for certain groups of
people, many of the reasons for concern about test bias might be eliminated.
Diversity in Intelligence
䉴 Is there more than one type of intelligence?
IQ scores can tell us some things—and predict some things—about people, but we have
seen that they don’t tell the whole story of intelligence. Let’s see how diverse intelligence can be by looking at some nontraditional aspects of intelligence and at some people whose intellectual abilities are unusually high or low.
Practical and Creative Intelligence
According to Robert Sternberg (1988b, 1999), a complete theory of intelligence must
deal with three different types of intelligence: analytic, creative, and practical. Analytic
intelligence, the kind that is measured by traditional intelligence tests, would help you
solve a physics problem; creative intelligence is what you would use to compose music;
and you would draw on practical intelligence to figure out what to do if you were
stranded on a lonely road during a blizzard. Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence
deals with all three types of intelligence.
Sternberg recognizes the importance of analytic intelligence for success in academics and other areas, but he argues that universities and companies should not select
people solely on the basis of tests of this kind of intelligence (Sternberg, 1996;
Sternberg & Williams, 1997). Why? Because the tasks posed by tests of analytic intelligence are often of little interest to the people taking them and typically have little
relationship to these people’s daily experiences. In contrast, the practical problems
people face every day are generally of personal interest and are related to more