Download - Sternberg Poster
“Mental activity directed toward purposive adaptation to, selection and shaping of, real-world environments relevant to one's life” - Robert Sternberg Sternberg had a background in implicit theories of intelligence, which are the
common, everyday ideas that people have about intelligence. Sternberg,
Conway, Ketron and Bernstein (1981) explored what people believed
intelligence to be. They found three main recurring trends that characterised
the responses of participants.
From these ideas, Sternberg went on to develop Triarchic Theory of
Intelligence.
By Sara Clarke, Catherine Downes, Georgina Durman, Delyth Evans, Sarah Farrant, Helen Gallagher, Emma Jones, Naomi Law, Nathan Lewis & Leighanne Mayall
Understanding intelligence is important
in everyday life. The way we evaluate
the intelligence of ourselves and those
around us can influence long-term and
short-term decisions.
I believe society is driven by how we
perceive and evaluate intelligence.
Our lives are influenced by our
understanding of intelligence, such as
doing well in a job interview.
EXAMPLE In the above example Harry would use his Metacomponents to
firstly start to think about whether he is getting the move right
and the extent to which he is getting it right. He would then
reassure himself through developed strategies and finally check
that the strategy is successful by performing the Wronski Feint.
How experience helps us understand the world around us and
consists of the ability to understand.
Internal world (cognition) and external reality (our environment)
interact to form intelligence.
The more familiar the task is the better performance should be.
Students learn best if they are taught and tested in ways that use all 3 of the
types of intelligence:
Using experience to understand new information.
Information already attained is used to adapt to new
situations and information.
EXAMPLE When looking at a new dataset in statistics, information
about previous datasets gained in lessons can allow
people to understand the new dataset.
When a skill is practiced a lot of times it eventually
becomes easier to do and requires less effort.
EXAMPLE Walking: We walk with little effort but toddlers toddle
and topple over.
1) Creatively oriented teaching
Requires invention, discovery, imagination, and
prediction.
2) Analytically oriented teaching
Requires analytic and critical skills.
3) Practically oriented teaching
Requires practical skills and application.
This subtheory refers to the practical applications of intelligence in the external environment & how it interacts with the world.
Intelligence enables us to achieve the optimal fit between ourselves and the environment:
Making changes to behaviour in order to adapt to our environment.
EXAMPLE If your plane crashed on an island inhabited with carnivorous bears,
you could learn to adapt to the environment by dressing up in a bear
costume to avoid being eaten.
If it is not possible to adapt to the environment, we can change
the environment to suit our needs.
EXAMPLE If you do not have a bear costume, you could instead lay traps to
catch the bears so that they are less likely to eat you.
Finding an alternative environment that is more
suited to our strengths and needs.
EXAMPLE Making a raft and sailing over to the neighbouring island that is
inhabited by friendly toucans that are not going to eat you
The mental mechanisms used for recognising problems, planning strategies,
controlling problem solving, and evaluating success of the proccess .
Three types of internal components that underlie intelligence are
defined, and these are tested using methods similar to
psychometric tests.
EXAMPLE If Harry Potter is trying to learn a new Quiddich move he
would use his Metacomponents to think about whether he
is getting it right, plan stratagies to improve the move and
to test out the move again.
Carry out the plans made by metacomponents and actually solve the problem.
It involves perceiving the problem, computing the number of possible solutions
and comparing them.
EXAMPLE Harry will think of sources to help with the move i.e.
asking Viktor Krum, or reading about it in Quidditch
Through the Ages. Next he will decide which is best
and use it.
The processes involved in acquiring and storing new information. It gives us
the ability to learn new things.
E.g. sifting out relevant information (selective encoding), putting together
new information (selective combination) and comparing new
information with old (selective comparison).
EXAMPLE Harry might find relevant information from the book, combine it
with Viktor’s advice and then use it to perform the move.
• The triarchic theory relates to real-life success.
• Sternberg’s tests also measure covert knowledge and a range of things not
measured by standard IQ tests.
• Testing intelligence using Sternberg’s criteria is time consuming and expensive
• It may lack generalizability - Sternberg based his theory on students from Yale
University.