Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-b6zl4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-07T18:08:22.092Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Study of Speed Factors in Tests and Academic Grades

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Frederic M. Lord
Frederic M. Lord*
Affiliation:
Educational Testing Service
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Speeded and unspeeded tests of vocabulary, spatial relations, and arithmetic reasoning were factorially analyzed, together with certain reference tests and academic grades. Lawley's maximum likelihood method was used, the computations being carried out on the Whirlwind electronic computer. Four different speed factors were isolated, together with a second-order general speed factor. Consistent small positive correlations between the academic grades and the speed factors were found.

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , March 1956 , pp. 31 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © 1956 The Psychometric Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The writer is indebted to Dr. John French, to Dr. David Saunders, and especially to Dr. Ledyard R Tucker for helpful suggestions and theoretical advice throughout the course of this study. The active cooperation of Dr. William Shields, Educational Advisor, and of many others at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis has been invaluable. The author is very grateful to Dr. P. Youtz and Dr. C. W. Adams for the opportunity to use Whirlwind I, a high-speed computer sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, and to Dr. H. Denman for help is programming and in putting the program on the computer. He also wishes to express his deep appreciation to Dr. Hubert Brogden and Miss Bertha Harper of The Adjutant General's Office for the opportunity to use their matrix rotator and for helpful guidance in its operation.

References

Bartlett, M. S. Tests of significance in factor analysis. Brit. J. Psychol., statist. Sect., 1950, 3, 77–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartlett, M. S. A further note on tests of significance in factor analysis. Brit. J. Psychol., statist. Sect., 1951, 4, 1–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, W. M., and Carroll, J. B. Speed and level components in time-limit scores: a factor analysis. Educ. psychol. Measmt., 1945, 5, 411–427CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dubois, P. H. A speed factor in mental tests. Arch. Psychol., 1932, No.141, pp. 38.Google Scholar
Emmett, W. G. Factor analysis by Lawley's method of maximum likelihood. Brit. J. Psychol., statist. Sect., 1949, 2, 90–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar
French, J. W. The description of aptitude and achievement tests in terms of rotated factors. Psychometric Monogr. No. 5, 1951.Google Scholar
French, J. W. Selected tests for reference vectors, Princeton: Educational Testing Service, 1953Google Scholar
Goheen, H. W., and Kavruck, S. Selected references on test construction, mental test theory, and statistics, 1929–1949. Washington, D. C. Superintendent of Documents, 1950.Google Scholar
Harris, C. W. The symmetrical idempotent matrix in factor analysis. J. exper. Educ., 1951, 19, 238–246CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henrysson, S. The significance of factor loadings—Lawley's test examined by artificial samples. Brit. J. Psychol., statist. Sect., 1950, 3, 159–166CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kendall, M. G. Factor analysis. Part I: Factor analysis as a statistical technique. J. roy. statist. Soc., Series B, 1950, 12, 60–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawley, D. N. The estimation of factor loadings by the method of maximum likelihood. Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, 1940, 60, 64–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawley, D. N. Further investigations in factor estimation. Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, 1941, 61, 176–185Google Scholar
Lawley, D. N. The application of the maximum likelihood method to factor analysis. Brit. J. Psychol., 1943, 33, 172–175Google Scholar
Lawley, D. N. Problems in factor analysis. Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, Section A, 1949, 62, 1–6Google Scholar
Lawley, D. N. The maximum likelihood method of estimating factor loadings. In Thomson, G. H. (Eds.), The factorial analysis of human ability 5th Ed., (pp. 321–329). London: Univ. of London Press, 1951Google Scholar
Mahan, W. W. Jr. The factorial comparison of five mental abilities using scores derived from speeded and unspeeded tests. Unpublished doctor's dissertation, Univ. of Texas, 1953.Google Scholar
Myers, C. T. The factorial composition and validity of differently speeded tests. Psychometrika, 1952, 17, 347–352CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rao, C. R. Estimation and tests of significance in factor analysis. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois. (Mimeo.)Google Scholar
Rimoldi, H. J. A. Personal tempo. J. abn. soc. Psychol., 1951, 46, 283–303CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sutherland, J. D. The speed factor in intelligent reactions. Brit. J. Psychol., 1934, 24, 276–294Google Scholar
Tate, M. W. Individual differences in speed of response in mental test materials of varying degrees of difficulty. Educ. psychol. Measmt, 1948, 8, 353–374CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tucker, L. R. A restatement of the equations for Lawley's maximum likelihood method of estimating factor loadings, Princeton: Princeton Univ., 1953Google Scholar
Vernon, P. E. The structure of human abilities, New York: Wiley, 1950Google Scholar
Whittle, P. On principal components and least square methods of factor analysis. Skandinavisk Aktuarietidskrift, 1952, 35, 223–239Google Scholar
Uppsala symposium on psychological factor analysis, 17–19 March 1953. Nordisk Psykologi, 1953, Monograph Series No. 3.Google Scholar