Meera, a counsellor in Pune, runs a workshop on intelligence. Her first speaker presents a model that sorts intellectual traits along three dimensions: operations, contents and products. Meera then describes Kavya. Kavya breaks a hard physics problem into parts, checks each part critically and tops her school tests. Before starting, Kavya decides what to do and how to do it. Next, Ananya sets goals and a time schedule before a class test, and changes her plan when a chapter proves too hard. Meera also plans to test Rohan, a 12-year-old with learning problems, on a battery of verbal and non-verbal tasks devised by Das and Naglieri. Finally, she tests an 8-year-old boy whose mental age comes out as 10.
In Sternberg's theory, how many components does Kavya's type of intelligence have, and which component is at work when she decides what to do and how to do it?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Three; the meta or higher order component
Option (1) Three; the knowledge acquisition component — Incorrect. The count is right. This component is responsible for learning and acquiring the ways of doing things.
Option (2) Three; the performance component — Incorrect. The count is right. The performance component involves actually doing things, which Kavya does only after she has decided how.
Option (3) Three; the meta or higher order component — Correct. Kavya breaks problems into parts, thinks critically and does well at school: this is componential (analytical) intelligence. It has three components. Deciding what to do and how to do it is planning, the work of the meta or higher order component.
Option (4) Two; the meta or higher order component — Incorrect. The component is right, but the count is not. Componential intelligence has three components: knowledge acquisition, meta and performance.
NCERT (2026-27): “Triarchic Theory of Intelligence … |