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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
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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.

Information

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

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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.

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