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A Factor Analysis of Verbal Abilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

John B. Carroll
John B. Carroll*
Affiliation:
Mount Holyoke College
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Abstract

A multiple-factor analysis was made of a battery of 42 tests of verbal abilities administered to 119 college adults. Where necessary, the distributions of test scores were normalized before the inter-test correlations were computed. Thurstone's M (Memory or Rote Learning) factor has been confirmed, but his V (Verbal Relations) factor seems to have been split into two or possibly three factors, C, J, and G; and his W (Word Fluency) factor has been split into two factors, A and E. The C factor seems to represent the richness of the individual's stock of linguistic responses, and the J factor seems to involve the ability to handle semantic relationships. No satisfactory interpretation can as yet be made of the G factor. The A factor seems to correspond to the speed of association for common words where there is a high degree of restriction as to appropriate responses. The E factor is described as an associational facility with verbal material where the only restriction is that the responses must be syntactically coherent. The new factors are: F, facility and fluency in oral speech; H, facility in attaching appropriate names or symbols to stimuli; and D, speed of articulatory movements.

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 6 , Issue 5 , October 1941 , pp. 279 - 307
Copyright
Copyright © 1941 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

*

This paper is a condensation of the writer's doctoral dissertation, “A Factor Analysis of Verbal Abilities,” on file at the library of the University of Minnesota.

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