Structure Of Intellect Research Articles

Intelligence has three facets. There are numerous intellectual abilities, but they fall neatly into a rational system.

In this limited space I have attempted to convey information regarding progress in discovering the nature of human intelligence. By intensive factor-analytic investigation, mostly within the past 20 years, the multifactor picture of intelligence has grown far beyond the expectations of those who have been most concerned. A comprehensive, systematic theoretical model known as the "structure of intellect" has been developed to put rationality into the picture. The model is a cubical affair, its three dimensions representing ways in which the abilities differ from one another. Represented are: five basic kinds of operation, four substantive kinds of information or "contents," and six formal kinds of information or "products," respectively. Each intellectual ability involves a unique conjunction of one kind of operation, one kind of content, and one kind of product, all abilities being relatively independent in a population, but with common joint involvement in intellectual activity. This taxonomic model has led to the discovery of many abilities not suspected before. Although the number of abilities is large, the 15 category constructs provide much parsimony. They also provide a systematic basis for viewing mental operations in general, thus suggesting new general psychological theory. The implications for future intelligence testing and for education are numerous. Assessment of intellectual qualities should go much beyond present standard intelligence tests, which seriously neglect important abilities that contribute to problem-solving and creative performance in general. Educational philosophy, curriculum-building, teaching procedures, and examination methods should all be improved by giving attention to the structure of intellect as the basic frame of reference. There is much basis for expecting that various intellectual abilities can be improved in individuals, and the procedures needed for doing this should be clear.

Roles of intellectual abilities in the learning of concepts.

Abstract : Three parallel concept-learning tasks were used in an experiment, one each for three of the content categories in the structure-of-intellect (SI) theory. The materials in the three tasks provided the learner with three kinds of information: pictorial, symbolic, and semantic, respectively. The duplication was made because abilities in the SI model differ according to the kind of information processed by the individual. (Author)

Six structure-of-intellect hypotheses in six-year-old children.

Six structure-of-intellect hypotheses in six-year-old children.

Sixteen Divergent-Production Abilities at the Ninth-Grade Level

A battery of 57 specially constructed and marker tests was administered to 206 ninth-grade students. Sixteen divergent production abilities were predicted, along with 7 other reference factors in the structure of intellect. Principal components analysis was followed by orthogonal rotation according to Cliff's least squares procedure for approximating a target matrix. The 16 divergent-production factors and the 7 reference factors were clearly identified.

DIMENSIONS OF ENGINEERS' JOB PERFORMANCE1

ABSTRACTConceptual dimensions needed to describe a full range of the job performance characteristics of engineers were developed. Agreement was found between the first‐order factors identified here and those in two separate earlier studies where some of the same items were used. An empirical second‐order factor analysis of these 31 first‐order factors gave an intelligible structure. The data also support the a priori taxonomy that had been postulated based on Guilford's “Structure of Intellect” model and Mills' The Engineer in Society.

Cognitive and non-cognitive aspects of reading ability

From a variety of cognitive and non-cognitive variables related to reading ability, only a single reading-related factor was found in a sample of 58 female education majors. The number of non-cognitive traits factorially related to reading ability cumulatively suggested that relatively poorer readers were likely to be anxious, pessimistic, intolerant of ambiguity, low in achievement valuation, and high on needs for succorance and abasement. The Gestalt-Transformation (G-T) Test showed the highest loading on the first factor, suggesting that this factor could have been named Semantic Redefinition. Clearly, G-T and other cognitive variables related to reading ability need to be investigated further to clarify and define what mental processes are being tapped in various reading tests. Also subsequent work on the “Structure of Intellect,” on the basis of results from the G-T test, may profitably examine personality correlates of various mental abilities.

The structure of intellect.

The structure of intellect.