Reading response - Assignment Example

College: Reading Response The first article in this analysis d “Expressions: Multiple Intelligences in the English Class” by Smagorisnky (1-6) begins by outlining a narrative of a baseball player renowned for his exceptional skills in the game, yet he was duped by some of his teammates to lose a World Series game on purpose. The principal idea that can be discerned from the first segment of this article is that traditional theories attempting to explain intelligence disparities in people are not conclusive.

Departing from conventional explanations of intelligence, like “headedness” and “handedness” the author notes how contemporary scholars in psychology have come up with various categories of intelligence, which provide better insight into what aptitude constitutes. These intelligence types include logical, musical, linguistic, spatial, bodily, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. These intelligence classes are not distinctive and most often individuals possess several in tandem. The second article titled “The Narrative Construction of Reality” by Bruner (2-21) denotes how extensive the focus on the manner through which human beings achieve true knowledge has been since time immemorial.

According to the author, the quest for understanding this has brought about immense development in the field of psychology attempting to explain people’s acquisition of knowledge. The article emphasizes that the traditional explanations for knowledge were unilinear, either rationalist focusing on the mind’s internal power or empiricist on the ability to learn from externalities. The principle argument supported by the article is that man’s knowledge capacity is a combination of several factors and is neither strictly unilinear not logical.

For this reason, individuals must not only strive to be rational, but also embrace symbolic external factors to gain knowledge. The final article “Science and Linguistics” by Whorf (69-70), begins by providing description of what the author refers to as "natural logic". This is a concept suggesting that every person beyond infancy talks and has deeply embedded ideas regarding speech and its connection to thinking. The author’s principal assertion is that thought and language are autonomous and that thinking is the same for virtually everyone, with the only slight distinction being in language.

All of the articles point towards the psychology of learning, knowledge, or overall intelligence. These scholarly works also show that human intelligence cannot be considered to be as a result of one element, neither can it be restricted to one area of expertise. Overall, there seems to be a consensus that intelligence, especially linguistic, is a combination of various factors, both internal and interactive. Works CitedBruner, Jerome. The Narrative Construction of Reality. Critical Inquiry, 18.1 (1991): 1-21.

Smagorinsky, Peter. Multiple Intelligences in the English Class. 1991. Web. 14 September 2014. Whorf, Benjamin. Science and Linguistics MIT Technology Review, 42.6 (1940): 69-73.