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Francis Galton - London Exposition
The English scientist Galton wondered if it was possible to measure "natural ability." So, at this London Exposition, more than 10,000 visitors received his assessment of their "intellectual strengths" based on various tests and measurements. -
Charles Spearman - General Intelligence
Charles Spearman believed that all humans have one general intelligence, which is often shorted to just g. He believed that a common skill set, the g factor, underlies all of our intelligent behavior. -
Alfred Binet - Mental Age
Binet was commissioned by France's minister of public education to create some sort of intelligence test to make a prediction of a children's learning potential. He created the measurement of a mental age, which is the level of performance typically associated with a certain chronological age. -
William Stern - Intelligence Quotient
From tests such as the Stanford-Binet, German psychologist William Stern derived the famous intelligence quotient, or IQ. This IQ was simply a person's mental age divided by chronological age and then multiplied by 100 to get rid of the decimal. -
Lewis Terman - Stanford-Binet
Terman, a Stanford University professor, adapted some of Binet's original items, added others, established new age norms, and extended the upper end of the test's range from teenagers to "superior adults" to create the Stanford-Binet intelligence test. -
Edward Thorndike - Social Intelligence
The concept of social intelligence as separate from academic intelligence was proposed by psychologist Edward Thorndike. He believed that the ability to function successfully in interpersonal situations and managing oneself successfully was a type of intelligence. -
David Wechsler - Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
Psychologist David Wechsler created what is now the most widely used intelligence test, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. It consists of 11 subtests that are broken into verbal and performance areas. There is also a version for school-age and preschool children. -
Raymond Cattell - Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence
Raymond Cattell proposed two types of cognitive abilities in a revision of Spearman's concept of general intelligence. He proposed fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. Fluid meaning the capacity to think logically and solve problems in novel situations and crystallized meaning the ability to use skills, knowledge, and experience. -
J.P. Guilford - Structure of Intelligence
J.P. Guilford created the Structure of Intelligence, which stated that an individual's performance on intelligence tests can be traced back to the underlying mental abilities or factors of intelligence. His SI theory comprises up to 150 different intellectual abilities organized along three dimensions including operations, content, and products. -
Howard Gardner - Eight Intelligences
Gardner views intelligence as multiple abilites that come in packages. The specific eight intelligences he classified include linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal (self), interpersonal (other people), and naturalist. -
Robert Sternberg - Three Intelligences
Sternberg agrees with Gardner's idea of multiple intelligences and that there is more to success than traditional intelligence, but he proposes a triarchic theory of three. These three include analytical (academic problem-solving), creative, and practical. -
Emotional Intelligence
John Mayer, Peter Salovey, and David Caruso have created the concept of emotional intelligence. It includes the abilities to perceive emotions, understand emotions, manage emotions, and use emotions to enable adaptive or creative thinking.
