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The Common Factors in Fifty-Two Mental Tests

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Herbert Woodrow
Herbert Woodrow*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois
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Abstract

An analysis by Thurstone's centroid method of the intercorrelations of fifty-two tests was carried to ten factors. Included were tests of social intelligence, Philip's attention tests, and Seashore's tests of musical ability. After rotation of axes, the most important factors appeared to pertain to operations conventionally alluded to by the following terms: verbal facility; spatial ability; numerical ability; attention; musical ability; and memory (or memory span). The social intelligence tests proved to be mainly tests of the verbal factor. A factorial sex difference was indicated by the superiority of men in tests of spatial ability.

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , June 1939 , pp. 99 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © 1939 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

*

The tests were given in the spring of 1934 to students employed under the National Emergency Relief Administration. The long time required to complete the analysis is due mainly to the fact that the analysis was repeatedly begun anew on account of new developments in factorial methods.

References

Philip, R. The measurement of attention. Catholic University of America. Studies in Psychology, Vol. II, No. 1, 1928.Google Scholar
Seashore, Carl E. Manual of instructions and interpretations for measures of musical talent. New York, Columbia Graphophone, 1919, pp. 16.Google Scholar
Thurstone, L. L. Primary Mental Abilities. Psychometric Monog. No. 1, 1938, pp. 121.Google Scholar