Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-26
COMMON FACTORS
! FOUND IN MINDS
c. u. Tests May DisproVe
Theory That Abilities
Are Unrelated.
by THOMAS r. HENRY.

Discovery OF two general factors" in
human intelligence. and indications Of
several Others has Just been announced
at the psychological laboratory OF
Catholic University here.
This discovery, which may have far
reaching results on the procedure of
education II 1t is upheld by further
experimentation, is the result of in
tensive mathematical analysis by a spe-
cially devised technique Of the abilities
of large groups of school children. Nine
tests were used, each designed TO meas
ure some specific ability.
The research shows, the report says,
that there Is little If any relation be-
tween the sort Of mental ability re-
Quired by tasks which require reason
ing. perception Of likenesses and men,
DRY and those which require primarily
close attention or the ability to hold
things in the mind such as would be
needed to add column Of figures Gin
the head"
-Four Tests Given.
-Four tests were given to measure the
eo-called "cognitive" ability of the
children. The first measured the abil-
ity to reason by such questions as the
following:
b is three miles northeast of A. A
weather vane at b Is turned toward A.
Prom which direction is the wind blow
ing?
Men should vote because: They
should help select good men for office;
they are 81 years old; women may
voter
Another measured Judgment Of quail
tty. Nouns were paired with adjec-
tives in double columns and the chill
dren asked to indicate whether the ad-
jective actually described some quality
found in the noun. Examples were But
ter, soft; egg, unbreakable.
Still another test measured the abil-
fly to see common factors in geometri-
cal figures. The fourth was a memory
test. The children studied a page of
pictures of common, objects. Then
they worked for a minute on simple
addition problems. At the end of this
time they wrote down as many as pos
sible of the objects whose pictures they
had studied before the interruption.
Some children naturally did better
on one test than another, but by a
special mathematical technique 1t was
shown that some common basic mental
quality was being measured by all four.
Thus the score on the reasoning test
would be the sum of this basic factor
and any special reasoning ability which
the pupil might have.
Arithmetic Is Used.
The second series of tests given to
the same children consisted of prob
lens in mental multiplication and
addition, and such tasks as the fol-
lowing:
A series of numbers interspersed with
letters is read to the child. 1t is asked
to write down from memory only the
numbers.
Such an expression as G34 is given
The child is asked to write down i'm
mediately the third letter following G
in the alphabet and then the fourth
letter after that, so that the expression
becomes GIN.
It was found that the child who did
well on one of these tasks, designed to
measure the ability to pay close at
tention and concentrate, tended to do
well on All the others. Here again q
common intellectual factor was indi-
Gated by the special technique.
But the specially devised mathemati-
cal technique, by which the test re-
suits were analysed, showed that there
Is almost no relationship between the
two abilities measured by the two sets
Of tests. One child might do well on
one set and poorly on another, indi-
eating that he had lot of the "cogni-
tive ability and very little of the
attention" factor A single individual
AAAA4lb, O11 bA1C OI1lSE w WCAA VA
both sets, having plenty of both kinds
OF ability. But solution of the
mathematical formulate showed no
clear relationship.
The study showed indications Of still
other unrelated general factors in in
telligence-one underlying the ability
to form associations and the other
underlying speed. These, however,
were not subjected to the same inten-
Sive mathematical analysis.
Draws Conclusions.
The conclusion of Sister Miriam
Reinhart. the graduate student who
carried out the study under the direc-
ton of Rev. DR.. Thomas v. Moore,
professor of psychology. is that ut is
not likely that the number of elemen-
tary mental powers will prove to be
infinite nor will they be limited to
some 10 or a dozen" The work points,
1t is concluded, Ito q multi-focal
theory of our mental life, a revision of
the concept of mental faculties"
There are two opposed schools of
thought In present day psychology on
this subject, 1t is pointed out in the
latest issue of the univerSitys studies