Psychometric Theories

Question 1

Unifactoral - Spearman

Galton “g” AO1

Answer 1

Galton - tested 9000 men on a range of tasks testing reaction time, perception etc. Found no correlation.
Picked up by Spearman - correlation between maths and English scene red and suggested a performance on intellectual tasks depended on general mental capacity “g”

Question 2

AO2 Unifactoral

Schmidt and Hunter
Kuncel et al
Reductionist

Answer 2

S&H - good predictors of job success - more so than job specific skills - welders with high “g” performed better

K - 127 papers metanalysed - “g” level highly correlated with success in education and work

Too complex to reduce to one factor

Question 3

Hierarchical - Horn and Cattell AO1

“gf” and “gc”

Answer 3

“Gf” - fluid learning, trial and error learning, new problems solved with no previous experience

“Gc” - crystallised intelligence, past experience applied, pre exciting knowledge used

Question 4

Hierarchical AO2

Wiemart and Hany
Geary
Undheim

Answer 4

Wiemart & Hany - crystallised int improves as we age, fluid decreases - support for existence

Geary - crystallised = hippocampus, fluid = prefrontal cortex - different

Undheim - data from original study reassessed - still to simplistic and needs to be split further

Question 5

Multi factorial - Thurstone AO1

Answer 5

Space
Verbal comprehension 
Word fluency
Number
Perception 
Memory 
Reasoning 

Each person has strengths and weaknesses in each - higher in each score = higher intelligence

Question 6

Multifactorial - Thurstone AO2

RWA Mayer
Gullford

Answer 6

RWA - very helpful in targeting specific areas to improve in education - eg. “Number skills” can be focused on

Gullford - “g” too general and reductionist - may be as many as 120