1990 – Howard Gardner

Everyone has at least seven intelligences, most of which are overlooked by standard IQ tests.

That’s the theory advanced by Howard Gardner, an educational psychologist at Harvard University who has won the 1990 award.

In his 1983 book, “Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences,” Gardner distinguishes seven kinds of human intelligence: linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, and two types of personal intelligence.

People who exhibit intelligence in one domain do not necessarily exhibit it in another, Gardner has found. Each person’s unique blend of competences produces an individual cognitive profile.

Gardner presently is using the theory to develop more effective teaching and testing methods. Several schools have adopted programs based on his ideas, including The Key School in Indianapolis and the Pittsburgh public schools.

Judges for the Grawemeyer Award said Gardner “had extended the notion of intelligence beyond the narrow cognitive domain…The influence of his research and writing about the nature of intelligence and the means of measuring it are receiving increasing attention, primarily in the United States.”