Stretching the Mind

Dr Howard Gardner has had a profound impact on thinking and education. He talks to Open about the mind and its functioning

Q In 2008, as the Theory of Multiple Intelligences (TIM) turned 25, what would you say we’ve learnt about higher cognition?

A We have found that the brain is incredibly differentiated, with specific neural columns governing quite specific functions. For example, the recognition of hands. And the brain is incredibly plastic, meaning that it can be reorganised significantly throughout life and especially in the early years. Within cognitive studies, we know much more about the specific skills involved in the use of the several intelligences—for example, what it means to be talented in music or in spatial reasoning.

Q TIM was developed before Windows, Google, and Wikipedia took over our lives. How is clicking on hyperlinks and toggling between windows affecting our thought processing or cognition?

A My colleague Antonio Battro claims that we should assert a new intelligence—the digital intelligence, or click intelligence. I don’t think that is necessary, but there is no question that a great deal of time is spent writing instructions and moving a mouse around (as I am doing at the moment!). Doubtless this will affect our cognitive proclivities and biases. As computers become more complex and more agile, they can deliver information that stimulates and evokes the several intelligences.

As with every other tool, the computer itself can be used productively or unproductively. It has the potential to evoke nearly all of the intelligences,
but it is up to us whether we want to make use of those potentials.

Q Do Indians think differently?

A I have never been to India and it would be presumptuous of me to speculate about the intellectual profile(s) found among one billion people, most of them much younger than I am. I am a great admirer of Mahatma Gandhi, having written about him in three books, and consider him possibly the most important person of the last millennium. But that is a single unusual individual who belongs to all of mankind, not just India.

Q Does India being a multi-cultural and multi-lingual country give kids here an advantage over kids from language-neutral countries?

A I will say that all the evidence we have is that it is mind-expanding, and generative of creativity, to live among diverse groups and interact with them. In different ways, India and the United States are far more heterogeneous than most other societies. This makes life more difficult in certain ways, but it also means that if one deals successfully with diversity, society is likely to thrive—and I hope that both will!

Q Any announcement of an additional form of intelligence?

A I continue to monitor evidence that there is a ninth intelligence, called existential intelligence—so to speak, the intelligence of Big Questions. I would still like there to be some evidence that parts of the nervous system have evolved specifically to deal with issues and concepts that are too big or too little to be perceived. Nonetheless, informally, I do speak of an existential intelligence, and I am happy to have others do the same.

About The Author

Pramila N. Phatarphekar