A factorial study of temperament

The theory is advanced that personality factors obtained in the first order may often represent combinations of temperament traits that occur in the experimental population. Under these circumstances an investigation of the second order represents a purification process and yields factors which represent the more basic or pervasive characteristics of the original behavior items included in the factorial study. These second-order factors can be obtained directly in the first order by a careful selection of the variables which enter into the analysis. A second-order analysis was undertaken of the nine factors inherent in three of J. P. Guilford's inventories, and four clearly interpretable second-order factors were obtained. Three of these factors were obtained directly in the first order in a new factorial study of twenty-two behavior items. Attention is drawn to the similarities between these factors and traits of temperament postulated by an independent investigator.This paper abstracts portions of the writer's Ph.D. dissertation.     

A factorial study of number ability

In order to investigate certain hypotheses concerning the nature of number ability, and, secondarily, the nature of perceptual speed, a battery of thirty-four tests was given to 223 Chicago high school seniors and the data were factored by the centroid method. Seven primary factors were identifiable upon rotation. Several deductions are made relative to the interpretation of the factors and relative to the consistency of the data with the hypotheses which were to be tested. I wish to express my great appreciation of the aid of Professor L. L. Thurstone whose generosity made this study possible. Grateful acknowledgment is made of the aid of Mr. Ledyard Tucker in the use of the I.B.M. machines for obtaining the intercorrelations and the centroid factor loadings, and to both him and Mr. Harold Bechtoldt for aid in the testing of subjects.     

A factorial study of auditory function

Tests of auditory function in the fields of pitch, loudness, quality (timbre), and time, auditory analysis, synthesis, and memory, together with age, intelligence, and four tests of visual memory, were studied factorially. The subjects were 200 high-school students. The intercorrelations were factored to nine factors by a modification of the centroid technique and rotated to an oblique simple structure. No general auditory factor appeared. Instead there appeared group factors tentatively identified as pitch-quality discrimination, loudness discrimination, auditory integral for perceptual mass, auditory resistance (synthesis and analysis), speed of closure, auditory span formation, memory span (auditory and visual), memory or incidental closure and an unidentifiable residual plane. The average intercorrelation among the primary vectors was low, only one intercorrelation being greater than .34. A number of queries are answered by the interpretation of the results.     

A factorial study of fluency in writing

A factorial study of fluency was undertaken to test an hypothesis that at least two fluency abilities would be measured by a battery composed both of word fluency tests used by Thurstone and tests of fluency described by several British investigators. Twenty-eight tests, including ten reference tests for five primary mental abilities, were administered to 181 high-school seniors. Ten centroid factors were extracted, a simple structure was found, and eight factors were interpreted. Five factors defined were the following reference abilities: memory (M), number (N), reasoning (R), verbal comprehension (V), and perceptual speed (P), the last one being somewhat tentatively identified. The main finding is the analysis of fluency into two factors: word fluency (W) and ideational fluency (F). Word fluency is defined as a facility in producing single, isolated words that contain one or more formal restrictions, without reference to the meaning of the words. Ideational fluency is described as a facility in expressing ideas by the use of words and their meanings. Another verbal ability indicated is tentatively interpreted as verbal versatility, the ability to express essentially the same idea by means of several different words or combinations of words.The writer wishes to express his appreciation to Dr. L. L. Thurstone for his guidance throughout the study and for providing facilities and materials needed; to Miss Jessie LaSalle and the Washington, D. C., high schools for providing the subjects; to Ledyard Tucker, Frank Medland, and Mrs. Virginia Brown for computational assistance; and to others who gave aid during the study.     

A factorial study of the reasoning and closure factors

A battery of 46 tests was given to 237 college men. A factor analysis using the Thurstone technique revealed eight clearly interpretable first-order factors, one dubious factor, and a residual factor. The factors were interpreted as induction, deduction, flexibility of closure, speed of closure, space, verbal comprehension, word fluency, and number. Four second-order factors were abstracted from the matrix of first-order correlations. The presence of induction, deduction, and flexibility of closure on the first second-order factor, interpreted as an analytic factor, confirmed previous indications of relationships between the reasoning and closure factors. A second bipolar factor is interpreted as a speed of association factor. The third factor is interpreted as facility in handling meaningful verbal materials—perhaps an ability to do abstract thinking. The fourth factor is possibly a second-order closure factor—perhaps an ability to do concrete thinking.The author is grateful to Professor L. L. Thurstone for his encouragement and invaluable advice and for permission to use many tests originally prepared in the Psychometric Laboratory of the University of Chicago, to Mr. James Degan for assistance in rotations, and to the Social Science Research Committee of the University of Chicago for a grant to this study.