Abstract
Theory and practice have maintained an uneasy alliance throughout the history of intelligence testing. Contrary to popular belief, most tests of intelligence have been at least loosely based on theories of intelligence. The quality of the theories has varied, of course, as has the degree of correspondence between the tests and the theories on which they are based. Many of the problems of intelligence testing have been attributed to the lack of theoretical basis in conventional intelligence testing (see, e.g., Hunt, Frost, & Lunneborg, 1973). But I believe that the biggest problem in the testing of intelligence has not been the weakness of the linkage between theory and practice, but rather, the almost exclusive use of a single metaphor of mind underlying the testing of intelligence, a geographic metaphor that views intelligence tests as providing maps of a part of the mind. In this chapter, I will argue that our testing of intelligence has been and continues to be inadequate, in part because tests have been only partially adequate operationalizations of the theories upon which they are based, but in greater part because the theories upon which they are based have been derived from just one of the many possible metaphors of mind. If we want to improve our tests, we need to broaden them to take into account metaphors of mind other than the geographic one.
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Sternberg, R.J. (1992). Metaphors of Mind Underlying the Testing of Intelligence. In: Rosen, J.C., McReynolds, P. (eds) Advances in Psychological Assessment. Advances in Psychological Assessment, vol 8. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9101-3_1
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