The science of intelligence
Types of intelligence
Short answer
The popular "8 types of intelligence" list comes from Howard Gardner: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, personal and naturalist intelligences. Research has found little support for them as separate intelligences. The abilities researchers do measure are broad abilities such as fluid reasoning, comprehension-knowledge, visual processing, working memory and processing speed, all linked to general ability.
Want your own number? The test is 25 visual puzzles, about 12 minutes, no sign-up.
Two different kinds of list
Search for “types of intelligence” and you will mostly find one list, Howard Gardner's. Open a psychology textbook on measurement and you will find a different one, the broad abilities of the Cattell-Horn-Carroll model. The first is a theory about what should count as intelligence. The second is a map of how test scores actually cluster. Both are worth knowing, but they are not the same kind of claim.
Gardner's list, as he describes it
Gardner proposed his theory of multiple intelligences in 1983 (Neisser et al., 1996). He has said he defined seven intelligences in the early 1980s and, revisiting the task a decade later, found at least one more (Checkley, 1997). The list usually given is:
- Linguistic: the capacity to use language
- Logical-mathematical
- Spatial: representing the spatial world in your mind
- Musical: the capacity to think in music
- Bodily-kinesthetic: the capacity to use your whole body
- Interpersonal: understanding other people
- Intrapersonal: understanding yourself
- Naturalist: the ability to recognize and classify plants, minerals and animals (Checkley, 1997)
Gardner also discussed a possible existential intelligence but said in 1997 that he did not think there was good brain evidence for it yet (Checkley, 1997).
Try one · Spatial Reasoning
Which option is the same shape, only rotated?
Tap the option you think is right, or show the answer.
Show the answer
Option 4 is the original figure turned a half turn.
How to solve it
- Pick a landmark: the marked cell or the end of the longest arm.
- Turn the figure in your head and watch where that landmark goes, and which side the other cells end up on.
- Turning the figure a half turn gives option 4.
- Each of the other options is a mirror image: flipping it over would match, but no turn does.
That was 1 puzzle. The full test has 25.
What the evidence says about Gardner's types
The 1996 APA task force wrote that the stability and validity of tests in Gardner's new domains had yet to be conclusively demonstrated, and questioned whether some of them, such as bodily-kinesthetic ability, are intelligences or special talents (Neisser et al., 1996). A 2006 critical review concluded that the theory lacks adequate empirical support and should not be the basis for educational practice (Waterhouse, 2006). The list is a fair reminder that people differ in many ways. It is not a measured set of independent abilities. More on the multiple intelligences page.
The abilities research measures
John Carroll's 1993 reanalysis of more than 460 data sets produced a three-stratum hierarchy of cognitive abilities (Carroll, 1993), which became the core of the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model. A 2023 network analysis of a large test norm sample supported these broad abilities (McGrew et al., 2023):
| Broad ability | Code | In plain terms |
|---|---|---|
| Fluid reasoning | Gf | Solving new problems, spotting rules |
| Comprehension-knowledge | Gc | Vocabulary and general knowledge |
| Visual processing | Gv | Working with shapes and space in your head |
| Auditory processing | Ga | Making sense of sounds, including speech sounds |
| Short-term working memory | Gwm | Holding and using information for a few seconds |
| Retrieval fluency | Gr | Pulling ideas or words from memory quickly |
| Processing speed | Gs | Doing simple tasks quickly and accurately |
These abilities are distinct but not independent. Different cognitive abilities correlate about 0.30 on average at the observed level (Plomin & Deary, 2015), which is why a general factor sits above them. Fluid and crystallized intelligence, the oldest split, date to Raymond Cattell in 1963 (Wikipedia: Fluid and crystallized intelligence); see fluid vs crystallized intelligence and the CHC theory page. Individual abilities have their own pages: working memory and spatial intelligence.
Where emotional intelligence fits
Emotional intelligence is often added as another type. The label covers two different things: ability-based EI and mixed or trait-based EI (Joseph & Newman, 2010). Ability EI is tested with scored tasks; the MSCEIT, for example, uses answers that emotions experts and a standardization sample largely agreed on (Mayer et al., 2003). Trait EI is described as a constellation of traits and self-perceived abilities that belongs with personality, not cognitive ability (Petrides & Furnham, 2001). See emotional intelligence for how each performs.
Which types does an IQ test cover?
A full clinical battery mixes tasks that use words, numbers and shapes and combines them into one score. Our free test is narrower: it uses visual and number puzzles, so it leans on fluid reasoning and visual processing and gives an estimated IQ from those. Try a sample on the puzzles page.
Sources
- Neisser, U., Boodoo, G., Bouchard, T. J., Jr., Boykin, A. W., Brody, N., Ceci, S. J., Halpern, D. F., Loehlin, J. C., Perloff, R., Sternberg, R. J., & Urbina, S. (1996). Intelligence: Knowns and unknowns. American Psychologist, 51(2), 77-101. doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.51.2.77
- Checkley, K. (1997). The first seven... and the eighth: A conversation with Howard Gardner. Educational Leadership, 55(1). ASCD. ascd.org/el/articles/the-first-seven.-.-.-and-the-eighth-a-conversation-with-howard-gardner
- Waterhouse, L. (2006). Multiple intelligences, the Mozart effect, and emotional intelligence: A critical review. Educational Psychologist, 41(4), 207-225. doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep4104_1
- McGrew, K. S., Schneider, W. J., Decker, S. L., & Bulut, O. (2023). A psychometric network analysis of CHC intelligence measures. Journal of Intelligence, 11(1), 19. doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11010019
- Carroll, J. B. (1993). Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor-analytic studies. Cambridge University Press. doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511571312
- Plomin, R., & Deary, I. J. (2015). Molecular Psychiatry, 20, 98-108. doi.org/10.1038/mp.2014.105
- Joseph, D. L., & Newman, D. A. (2010). Emotional intelligence: An integrative meta-analysis and cascading model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(1), 54-78. doi.org/10.1037/a0017286
- Petrides, K. V., & Furnham, A. (2001). Trait emotional intelligence: Psychometric investigation with reference to established trait taxonomies. European Journal of Personality, 15(6), 425-448. doi.org/10.1002/per.416
- Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., Caruso, D. R., & Sitarenios, G. (2003). Measuring emotional intelligence with the MSCEIT V2.0. Emotion, 3(1), 97-105. doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.3.1.97
- Fluid and crystallized intelligence. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_and_crystallized_intelligence