“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.