Transcript Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence

Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence
 introduction
 a. Processing components
 b. Contextual components
 c. Experiential components: Adapting to
unique experiences
 Improving intelligence
introduction
 Robert Sternberg believes that the ability to
function effectively in the real world is an
important indicator of intelligence
 He views intelligence as consisting of three
cognitive parts:
 a. Processing components (skills used in
problem solving)
 b. Contextual components (links between
intelligence and the environment)
 c. Experiential components (mechanisms for
modifying intelligence through experience).
Figure p. 121
Sternberg's triarchic model of intelligence
Performance
component
Knowledge
Acquisition
component
Processing
components
Adapting to the
environment
Metacomponent
Contextual
components
Intelligence
Experimental
components
Relate new
Experiences
To old
Selecting out of
The environment
Create
New patterns
Changing the
environment
Processing components
 They consist of a metacomponent, a language
acquisition component, and a performance
component.
 They are the most basic parts of his model that
learners use to think about and solve
problems.
 Sternberg describes these component as
analogous to manager, trainee, and laborer in a
company.
 The three components work together to
produce a final product.
Processing components
 For example student writing a term paper:
 1. Deciding on a topic, planning the paper,
and monitoring progress as its written =
metacomponent (manager)
 2. gathering facts and combines them into
related ideas = knowledge acquisition
component (trainee)
 3. doing the actual writing = performance
component (laborer)
Contextual components
 These explain how intelligent behavior involves
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adaptation.
In reaching goals, intelligent people adapt to, change,
or select out of the environment when necessary.
A student trying to succeed in a college course may do
the following;
1. adjusts her study strategies in response to a
professor's testing procedures (adapts)
2. she can't clearly hear his presentations, so she moves
to the front of the class (changes the environment)
3. despite these efforts she isn't succeeding, so she
drops the class (selects out of the environment)
contextual components help us apply our intelligence to
the solution of everyday, real-word problem.
Experiential components: Adapting to
unique experiences
 Sternberg thinks that intelligent behavior
includes:
 a. the ability to effectively deal with novel
experiences; and
 b. the ability to solve familiar problems
efficiently and automatically
 An intelligent person relates new
experiences to old and quickly identifies
relationships.
Experiential components: Adapting to
unique experiences
 Example
 A beginning reader encounters the word she. Teacher
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says, "shheee."
Then the reader encounters the word show. Teacher
says, "this word sounds like 'shho.'"
Next the student sees the word ship. He tries
pronouncing it himself: "ship."
He now has a rule to decode future words. When s and
h are together, they go "shh."
According to Sternberg, an intelligent child readily
recognizes patterns and soon can use rules
automatically. This ability increases with age.
Improving intelligence
 Sternberg believes that practice in relating
new to existing ideas improves intelligence.
 Sternberg emphasizes three different kinds of
thinking that improve intelligence through
allowing students to process information in
different ways:
 a. analytic- involves comparing, contrasting,
critiquing, judging, and evaluating.
 b. creative- includes investigating,
discovering, imagining, and supposing
 c. practical- includes implementing, applying,
using, and seeking relevance in ideas.