Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-fnl2l Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-19T00:42:48.799Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Closure Factors Related to Other Cognitive Processes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Carol Pemberton
Carol Pemberton*
Affiliation:
University of Delaware
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Twenty-five group tests, assembled with certain hypotheses concerning the first and second closure factors in mind, were administered to 154 subjects, mostly graduate students. The intercorrelations were analyzed factorially, yielding eight factors that were rotated to an oblique simple structure. The factors were interpreted as: speed of closure, C1; flexibility of closure, C2; verbal closure, C3; word fluency, W; reasoning, R; perceptual speed, P; the first space factor, S1; and speed of handwriting, H. Four second-order factors were tentatively described as analytical ability, synthetic ability, speed of perception, and word fluency. Three of the reasoning tests had their highest loadings on C2 and one on C3, which seems to be evidence that flexibility of closure generalizes in the cognitive domain and is associated with analytical ability.

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , September 1952 , pp. 267 - 288
Copyright
Copyright © 1952 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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

This paper summarizes part of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago. The writer is deeply indebted to Dr. L. L. Thurstone for his generous advice and guidance. The complete study is obtainable on microfilm, from the University of Chicago library, Film No. T1279 (price $2.15). It includes reproductions of the tests used, score distributions, and plots of the oblique V-matrices.

References

Bechtoldt, H. P. Factorial study of perceptual speed. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, 1947.Google Scholar
Botzum, W. A. A factorial study of the reasoning and closure factors. Psychometrika, 1951, 16, 361–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burt, Cyril. The structure of the mind: a review of the results of factor analysis, II. Brit. J. educ. Psychol., 1949, 19, 176–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chapman, R. L. The MacQuarrie test of mechanical ability. Psychometrika, 1948, 13, 175–179.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duncker, Karl. On problem-solving. Psychol. Monogr., 1945, 58, No. 5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frenkel-Brunswik, Else. Intolerance of ambiguity as an emotional and perceptual personality variable. J. Personal., 1949, 18, 108–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, K., and Scheerer, M. Abstract and concrete behavior. Psychol. Monogr., 1941, 53, 2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, L. V. Primary mental abilities in the Stanford-Binet, Age 13. Psychometric Laboratory Report, No. 71, University of Chicago, 1951.Google Scholar
Klein, G. S., and Schlesinger, H. Where is the perceiver in perceptual theory?. J. Personal., 1949, 18, 32–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meili, R. L'analyse de l'intelligence. Archives de Psychologie, 1946, 31, 2–64.Google Scholar
Rimoldi, H. J. A. The central intellective factor. Psychometrika, 1951, 16, 75–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Street, R. T. A Gestalt completion test. Contributions to Education, No. 481, New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1931.Google Scholar
Thorndike, E. L. A teacher's word book of the twenty thousand words found most frequently and widely in general reading for children and young people, New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1932.Google Scholar
Thurstone, L. L. Primary mental abilities, Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 1938.Google Scholar
Thurstone, L. L. The perceptual factor. Psychometrika, 1938, 3, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thurstone, L. L., and Thurstone, Thelma G. Factorial studies of intelligence, Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 1941.Google Scholar
Thurstone, L. L. A factorial study of perception, Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 1944.Google Scholar
Thurstone, L. L. Multiple-factor analysis, Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press, 1947.Google Scholar
Thurstone, L. L. Mechanical aptitude III. Analysis of group tests. Psychometric Laboratory Report, No. 55, University of Chicago, 1949.Google Scholar
Yela, M. Application of the concept of simple structure to Alexander's data. Psychometrika, 1949, 14, 121–135.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed