Robert Sternberg, Ph.D., Yale University
Cultural, Multicultural, and Cross-Cultural Intelligence Research: Necessary, Not Just Nice
How studies in other cultures show that claims made very assertively about intelligence, based on Western notions, are dead wrong. The claims are based on a narrow, ethnocentric view of the nature of intelligence and how to measure it. For example, in Kenya we showed that the notion of a single intelligence just cannot be right, at least as it is usually conceived. In Tanzania we showed that children who do poorly on intelligence tests can do much better if taught appropriately what to expect on such tests.