THE ROUGH GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGYHOW MANY KINDS OF INTELLIGENCE ARE THERE?
There’s general agreement that intelligence can be broken down into
crystallized intelligence, which reflects things like general knowledge
and vocabulary, and fluid intelligence, which is about abstract reasoning
and the ability to think on your feet. The US psychologist Howard
Gardner has put forward an account, popular but largely unaccepted
in mainstream circles, claiming there are seven further sub-types of
It’s all in the reflexes
Speed of mental processing is measured using: 1) simple reaction-time
tests, in which the participant must press a button as quickly as possible
in response to the appearance of a certain stimulus (for example, a light);
(2) choice reaction-time tests, in which there are two or more response
buttons and the participant must press the correct one depending on
which stimulus has appeared and; (3) inspection-time, tests in which
the participant must compare two stimuli as quickly as possible (for
example, identify which of two parallel lines is the longer).This picture, taken in 1925, shows Phil Scott, the British heavyweight boxing
champion, completing what appears to be a simple reaction-time test at
London’s Middlesex Hospital.