Replication of the hierarchical visual-perceptual-image rotation model in de Wolff and Buiten's (1963) battery of 46 tests of mental ability

Abstract

In two recent papers, Johnson & Bouchard [Johnson, W., & Bouchard, T. J., Jr. (2005a). The structure of human intelligence: It is verbal, perceptual, and image rotation (VPR) , not fluid and crystallized. Intelligence, 33, 393-416, Johnson W., & Bouchard, T. J., Jr. (2005b). Constructive replication of the visual perceptual-image rotation model in Thurstone's (1941) battery of 60 tests of mental ability. Intelligence, 33, 417-430.] have evaluated the relative descriptive accuracies of the Cattell–Horn fluid-crystallized model and the Vernon verbal-perceptual model of the structure of human intelligence. In all three samples evaluated in those papers, the Vernon model provided a measurably more accurate description of the data. In addition, descriptive accuracy could be significantly improved with the use of a four-stratum model with a g factor at the top of the hierarchy and three factors at the third stratum. The model accords similar importance to verbal, perceptual, and image rotation abilities in the hierarchy; thus, Johnson and Bouchard termed it the Verbal-Perceptual-Image Rotation (VPR) model. In the current study, we constructively replicated the model comparisons and development of the VPR model using the data matrix of 46 mental ability tests published by de Wolff and Buiten [de Wolff, Ch. J., & Buiten (1963). Een factoranalyse van vier testbatterijen [A factor analysis of four test batteries]. Nederlands Tijdschrift voor de Psychologie, 18, 220-239.]. The sample consisted of 500 professional seamen of the Royal Dutch Navy.