Question

What is factor analysis? What role does it play with respect to the Theory of General Intelligence developed by Alfred Binet and Charles Spearman? EXPLAIN WHY this theory considers Intelligence to be a 'unitary' concept? Which other Intelligence theory proposes an understanding of Intelligence that is the opposite of a unitary concept?

Answer 1

• Factor analysis began with psychologist Charles Spearman around a century ago. He noticed the huge variety of measures for cognitive acuity - visuo-spatial skill, artistic abilities, reasoning etc. - and wondered if one general, underlying intelligence variable (which he called g) could explain them all.
• The approach involves finding a way of reducing correlated variables to a smaller, independent set of derived variables, with minimum loss of information. Factor analysis is therefore a data condensation tool which removes redundancy or duplication from a set of correlated variables.
• According to Spearman, this g factor was responsible for overall performance on mental ability tests. Spearman noted that while people certainly could and often did excel in certain areas, people who did well in one area tended also to do well in other areas. For example, a person who does well on a verbal test would probably also do well on other tests.
• Those who hold this view believe that intelligence can be measured and expressed by a single number, such as an IQ score. The idea is that this underlying general intelligence influences performance on all cognitive tasks.
• Spearman believed that general intelligence represented an intelligence factor underlying specific mental abilities. All tasks on intelligence tests, whether they related to verbal or mathematical abilities, were influenced by this underlying g-factor.
• Many modern intelligence tests, including the Stanford-Binet(Alfred Binet), measure some of the cognitive factors that are thought to make up general intelligence. These include visual-spatial processing, quantitative reasoning, knowledge, fluid reasoning, and working memory.
• There are strong arguments to support the theory of one general type of intelligence. The most convincing evidence for a single general intelligence model is the fact that there is proof of a single general factor that governs the level of intelligence of an individual. This is also known as the positive manifold (Spearman, 1904).
• The argument in support of one general intelligence is the fact that there is a high positive correlation between different tests of cognitive ability. Spearman (1904), in doing his research, administered to many people different types of tests, covering several different areas of cognitive ability. When he examined the results of these different tests, he found that there was a positive correlation between the tests for a given individual.
• In other words, if a certain person performed well on a test of verbal abilities, then that same person also performed well on another test of another cognitive ability, for instance, a mathematics test. Spearman named this positive correlation among tests the positive manifold.
• This positive manifold was also called the general intelligence factor, or g. This is the single factor that determines the intelligence of the individual. This positive manifold led Spearman to find a large first factor that was dubbed general intelligence, or g.
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