Thurston's Theory of Intelligence - Psynso

Thurstone's work in factor analysis led him to formulate a model of intelligence center around “Primary Mental Abilities” (PMAs), which were independent group ... Skiptocontent LouisLeonThurstone(29May1887–30September1955)wasaU.S.pioneerinthefieldsofpsychometricsandpsychophysics.Heconceivedtheapproachtomeasurementknownasthelawofcomparativejudgment,andiswellknownforhiscontributionstofactoranalysis.   Backgroundandhistory LouisLeonThurstonewasborninChicago,IllinoistoSwedishimmigrantparents.ThurstoneoriginallyreceivedamastersinMechanicalEngineeringfromCornellUniversityin1912.ThurstonewasofferedabriefassistantshipinthelaboratoryofThomasEdison.In1914,aftertwoyearsasaninstructorofgeometryanddraftingattheUniversityofMinnesota,heenrolledasagraduatestudentinpsychologyattheUniversityofChicago(PhD.1917).HelaterreturnedtotheUniversityofChicago(1924–1952)wherehetaughtandconductedresearch.In1952,heestablishedtheL.L.ThurstonePsychometricLaboratoryattheUniversityofNorthCarolinaatChapelHill.   Factoranalysisandworkonintelligence ThurstonewasresponsibleforthestandardizedmeanandstandarddeviationofIQscoresusedtoday,asopposedtotheIntelligenceTestsystemoriginallyusedbyAlfredBinet.HeisalsoknownforthedevelopmentoftheThurstonescale. Thurstone’sworkinfactoranalysisledhimtoformulateamodelofintelligencecenteraround“PrimaryMentalAbilities”(PMAs),whichwereindependentgroupfactorsofintelligencethatdifferentindividualspossessedinvaryingdegrees.Heopposedthenotionofasingulargeneralintelligencethatfactoredintothescoresofallpsychometrictestsandwasexpressedasamentalage.In1935Thurstone,togetherwithELThorndikeandJPGuilfordfoundedthejournalPsychometrikaandalsothePsychometricSociety,goingontobecomethesociety’sfirstPresidentin1936.Thurstone’scontributionstomethodsoffactoranalysishaveprovedinvaluableinestablishingandverifyinglaterpsychometricfactorstructures,andhasinfluencedthehierarchicalmodelsofintelligenceinuseinintelligencetestssuchasWAISandthemodernStanford-BinetIQtest.   TheTheoryofPrimaryMentalAbilities Thurstone(1938)proposedatheoryofprimarymentalabilities.Althoughthistheoryisnotwidelyusedtoday,thetheoryformsthebasisofmanycontemporarytheories,includingtwocontemporarytheoriesdiscussedlater,thoseofGardner(1983)andCarroll(1993).Itisalsothebasisformanycontemporarygrouptestsofintelligence. Thurstone(1938)analyzedthedatafrom56differenttestsofmentalabilitiesandconcludedthattotheextentthatthereisageneralfactorofintelligence,itisunimportantandpossiblyepiphenomenal.Fromthispointofviewtherearesevenprimarymentalabilities: Verbalcomprehension.Thisfactorinvolvesaperson’sabilitytounderstandverbalmaterial.Itismeasuredbytestssuchasvocabularyandreadingcomprehension. Verbalfluency.Thisabilityisinvolvedinrapidlyproducingwords,sentences,andotherverbalmaterial.Itismeasuredbytestssuchasonethatrequirestheexamineetoproduceasmanywordsaspossiblebeginningwithaparticularletterinashortamountoftime. Number.Thisabilityisinvolvedinrapidarithmeticcomputationandinsolvingsimplearithmeticwordproblems. Perceptualspeed.Thisabilityisinvolvedinproofreadingandinrapidrecognitionoflettersandnumbers.ItismeasuredbytestssuchasthoserequiringthecrossingoutofAsinalongstringoflettersorintestsrequiringrecognitionofwhichofseveralpicturesattherightisidenticaltothepictureattheleft. Inductivereasoning.Thisabilityrequiresgeneralization—reasoningfromthespecifictothegeneral.Itismeasuredbytests,suchasletterseries,numberseries,andwordclassifications,inwhichtheexamineemustindicatewhichofseveralwordsdoesnotbelongwiththeothers. Spatialvisualization.Thisabilityisinvolvedinvisualizingshapes,rotationsofobjects,andhowpiecesofapuzzlefittogether.Anexampleofatestwouldbethepresentationofageometricformfollowedbyseveralothergeometricforms.Eachoftheformsthatfollowsthefirstiseitherthesamerotatedbysomerigidtransformationorthemirrorimageofthefirstforminrotation.Theexamineehastoindicatewhichoftheformsattherightisarotatedversionoftheformattheleft,ratherthanamirrorimage. Today,Thurstone’stheoryisnotusedasofteninitsoriginalform,butithasservedasabasisformanysubsequenttheoriesofintelligence,includinghierarchicaltheoriesandmoderntheoriessuchasGardner’s(1983).Thus,totheextentthatatheoryisjudgedbyitsheuristicvalue,Thurstone’shasbeenoneofthemostimportantinthefield.   Contributionstomeasurement Despitehiscontributionstofactoranalysis,Thurstone(1959,p.267)cautioned:“Whenaproblemissoinvolvedthatnorationalformulationisavailable,thensomequantificationisstillpossiblebythecoefficientsofcorrelationofcontingencyandthelike.Butsuchstatisticalproceduresconstituteanacknowledgementoffailuretorationalizetheproblemandtoestablishfunctionsthatunderliethedata.Wewanttomeasuretheseparationbetweenthetwoopinionsontheattitudecontinuumandwewanttotestthevalidityoftheassumedcontinuumbymeansofitsinternalconsistency”.Thurstone’sapproachtomeasurementwastermedthelawofcomparativejudgment.Heappliedtheapproachinpsychophysics,andlatertothemeasurementofpsychologicalvalues.Theso-called‘Law’,whichcanberegardedasameasurementmodel,involvessubjectsmakingacomparisonbetweeneachofanumberofpairsofstimuliwithrespecttomagnitudeofaproperty,attribute,orattitude.Methodsbasedontheapproachtomeasurementcanbeusedtoestimatesuchscalevalues. Thurstone’sLawofcomparativejudgmenthasimportantlinkstomodernapproachestosocialandpsychologicalmeasurement.Inparticular,theapproachbearsacloseconceptualrelationtotheRaschmodel(Andrich,1978),althoughThurstonetypicallyemployedthenormaldistributioninapplicationsoftheLawofcomparativejudgmentwhereastheRaschmodelisasimplelogisticfunction.ThurstoneanticipatedakeyepistemologicalrequirementofmeasurementlaterarticulatedbyRasch,whichisthatrelativescalelocationsmust‘transcend’thegroupmeasured;i.e.scalelocationsmustbeinvariantto(orindependentof)theparticulargroupofpersonsinstrumentaltocomparisonsbetweenthestimuli.Thurstone(1929)alsoarticulatedwhathereferredtoastheadditivitycriterionforscaledifferences,acriterionwhichmustbesatisfiedinordertoobtaininterval-levelmeasurements. Searchthiswebsite PUBLISHPSYCHOLOGYARTICLESWITHPSYNSO KnowMore CONTACTPSYNSO MostPopular HowtoBuildTrustinaRelationshipUsingCBT? 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