Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences

The book's spine is Gardner's argument that human cognition comprises several relatively independent intelligences rather than a single general capacity. He rejects the psychometric tradition's assumption that a general intelligence factor (g) underlies all cognitive performance and that IQ tests adequately measure intellectual ability [citation:4][citation:7]. Gardner defines an intelligence as the ability to solve problems or create products valued within one or more cultural settings—a definition that says nothing about testing or heritability [citation:7]. He identifies seven initial intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal [citation:2][citation:13]. The book's argument is biocultural, drawing on evidence from brain damage, prodigies, savants, evolutionary history, and cross-cultural cognition to support the claim of cognitive pluralism.

Gardner proposes eight criteria for determining whether a candidate capacity qualifies as an intelligence: potential isolation by brain damage; an evolutionary history; identifiable core operations; susceptibility to encoding in a symbol system; a distinctive developmental history; the existence of idiot savants, prodigies, and exceptional individuals; support from experimental psychological tasks; and support from psychometric findings [citation:11]. These criteria are deliberately broad, drawing on biological and anthropological evidence rather than relying solely on factor-analytic correlations. Gardner acknowledges that the criteria are flexible and that some candidates may meet them more fully than others. The naturalist intelligence, added later, was judged to satisfy these criteria as firmly as the original seven [citation:8].

The most substantive criticism concerns the independence of the intelligences. If intelligences are modular and content-specific, critics argue, how do they exchange information and cooperate in complex activities? A 1999 critique in Educational Researcher notes that dance involves both musical and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, conversation involves linguistic and interpersonal intelligence, and solving a physics problem involves spatial and logical-mathematical intelligence [citation:6]. Gardner has conceded that a 'dumb executive' might prevent conflicts among intelligences, but critics contend this concession undermines the modularity claim. If intelligences extensively exchange information or share a common executive, the distinction becomes trivial, and the system as a whole resembles a single intelligence with components [citation:6]. Gardner's response has been to acknowledge overlap and correlation while maintaining that the intelligences remain distinct enough to warrant the label.

Psychologists, particularly psychometricians, have never embraced the theory. Thomas Bouchard's 1984 review in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry described the book as 'delightful and entertaining' but characterized it as 'primarily an opinion piece, a collection of anecdotes and reports' that does not 'put to rest the concept of IQ' [citation:3]. Gardner himself has noted that psychometricians 'have never liked the theory—they have a vested interest in IQ testing, and many prefer accounts that claim the high heritability of IQ' [citation:20]. A 1992 ETS report by Samuel Messick reviewed Frames of Mind alongside Sternberg's Beyond IQ and found 'surprisingly little overlap at a deep-structure or even a surface level' between the two formulations, concluding that both would have benefited from engaging more systematically with factorial theories of intelligence [citation:9].

The book's educational reception was largely unanticipated. Gardner himself 'had almost nothing to say about the practical applications of his theory,' yet educators 'passed Frames of Mind around like samizdat' [citation:4]. Teachers and administrators found in the theory a metatheory that validated their intuitive sense that children learn in different ways and provided a framework for democratizing human gifts [citation:4]. Tom Hoerr, a school headmaster, read the book and spent months discussing it with faculty chapter by chapter; a group of Indianapolis teachers drove 14 hours to talk with Gardner about creating a school based on his philosophy [citation:4]. One educator called Gardner 'the guru, and Frames of Mind the bible' [citation:4]. This grassroots adoption occurred despite the book's lack of practical guidance, reflecting its appeal to a public disillusioned with the scientific-technocratic worldview.

Frames of Mind was first published by Basic Books in 1983, with 440 pages [citation:10]. A tenth-anniversary edition with a new introduction by Gardner was published in 1993 [citation:12][citation:18]. A 2011 paperback edition (3rd reprint) runs 467 pages [citation:1][citation:10]. A fourth revised edition is scheduled for April 2026, with 496 pages [citation:10]. The book has been translated into multiple languages, including Spanish (Estructuras de la mente, Fondo de Cultura Económica), Italian (Formae mentis, Feltrinelli), and German (Abschied vom IQ, Klett-Cotta) [citation:10][citation:16]. The 2011 edition includes a new introduction by the author and retains the original structure: Part I on background and criteria, Part II on the seven intelligences, and Part III on implications and applications [citation:1].