Instead, this theory defines intelligence as an ability to solve problems or create products that are valued in at least one culture. Drawing upon findings from evolutionary biology, anthropology, developmental and cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, and psychometrics, Gardner uses eight different criteria to judge whether a candidate ability can be counted as an intelligence 1. When he introduced the theory in Frames of Mind, Gardner suggested that each individual possesses at least seven such relatively independent mental abilities or intelligences. Core operations are among the eight criteria he uses to evaluate one or another candidate intelligence. In Gardner's theory, the word intelligence is used in two senses.
Intelligence can also denote an individual difference.
Individuals are never endowed solely with one intelligence. Rather, all brain-unimpaired people possess all the intelligences, which they blend in various ways in the course of creating something that is meaningful or performing a meaningful role or task. Linguistic intelligence allows individuals to communicate and make sense of the world through language. Poets exemplify this intelligence in its mature form. Musical intelligence allows people to create, communicate, and understand meanings made out of sound.