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106 KKU Science Journal Volume 39 Number 1 Research<br />

Introduction<br />

Dermal ridges on palm, fingertips, and<br />

soles appear in the third to fifth month of fetal<br />

development and the patterns remain unchanged<br />

(Penrose, 1969; Penrose and Ohara, 1973; Okajima,<br />

1975; Nora and Fraser, 1989). Disturbances can be<br />

caused environmentally by diseases such as fetal<br />

rubella, thalidomide poisoning (Penrose and Ohara,<br />

1973) or chromosomal aberration (Schaumann and<br />

Alter, 1976; Rajangam et al., 1995) or maternal<br />

stress during prenatal period (Babler, 1991; Brown<br />

et al., 2000; Rosa et al., 2001). The dermal ridges<br />

on fingertips called fingerprints are arranged in<br />

patterns and classified based on the number of<br />

triradii present (Holt, 1961). Thus, there is no<br />

triradius in a simple arch pattern, one triradius in<br />

loops (ulnar and radial), and two triradii in a whorl.<br />

Since Professor Howard Gardner (1983)<br />

initially identified the original seven different<br />

kinds of human intelligences i.e. linguistic, logicalmathematical,<br />

spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic,<br />

interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligences in Frames<br />

of Mind, then added an eighth intelligence -<br />

naturalistic intelligence (Gardner, 1999). Short<br />

descriptions of those multiple intelligences (MI) are<br />

as follows: linguistic = smart in spoken & written<br />

language; logical-mathematical = smart in numbers<br />

& reason; spatial = smart in patterns of wide space;<br />

musical = smart in rhythm; bodily-kinesthetical =<br />

smart in bodily movement; interpersonal = smart in<br />

understanding other people; intrapersonal = smart in<br />

understanding themselves; naturalistic = smart in<br />

nature & the environment. Human beings are<br />

organisms who possess a basic set of intelligences<br />

and have a unique blend of their intelligences<br />

(Gardner, 1999). Though Gardnerûs theory of MI<br />

has not been readily accepted within academic<br />

psychology, it has however has met with a strong<br />

positive response from many educators and has helped<br />

them to reflect on their practices, and given them a<br />

basis to broaden their focus, and to attend to what<br />

might assist people to live their lives well (Smith,<br />

2008). Factors affecting human intelligences are<br />

biological endowment (including genes, and brain<br />

injuries during development), personal life history,<br />

and cultural background (Armstrong, 1994). The<br />

fingerprint pattern is also inherited from many genes<br />

(Penrose, 1969) and prenatal environments (Babler,<br />

1991; Brown et al., 2000; Rosa et al., 2001).<br />

Therefore, the authors hypothesize that MI and<br />

fingerprint patterns may be related. To assess MI<br />

from a fingerprint pattern would be easy, quick and<br />

useful for parents and teachers to promote the<br />

potentialities of their children. The aim of the pilot<br />

study was to describe the MI scores and analyze<br />

relationships between each MI score and the<br />

fingerprint patterns of school children. This research<br />

protocol had been reviewed and received ethical<br />

approval from the Khon Kaen University Ethics<br />

Committee for Human Research.<br />

Materials and methods<br />

Subjects: A total of 72 high school<br />

children who attended the Olympic academic course<br />

at the Faculty of Science, Khon Kaen University,<br />

northeastern Thailand participated in the study.<br />

Instruments: Four kinds of instruments<br />

were used as follows:<br />

1. Laptop PC.<br />

2. Fingerprint sensor (digitalPersona Inc.,<br />

IT WORKS Co., Ltd., 2005).

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