what is Thurstone's g-factor? Primary Mental Abilities

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Louis Leon Thurstone was a psychologist who fundamentally challenged Charles Spearman's concept of a single general intelligence factor, known as the g-factor. While Spearman believed that all cognitive abilities were related through one underlying general intelligence, Thurstone argued that intelligence is not a single entity but rather consists of multiple, distinct abilities that he called Primary Mental Abilities. Thurstone proposed seven Primary Mental Abilities, each representing a distinct cognitive capacity. These are: Verbal Comprehension, the ability to understand words and concepts; Word Fluency, the ability to produce words rapidly; Number Facility, skill in arithmetic operations; Spatial Visualization, the ability to manipulate objects mentally in space; Associative Memory, the capacity to memorize and recall information; Perceptual Speed, the ability to perceive details quickly; and Reasoning, the ability to solve logical problems and identify patterns. Let's examine each Primary Mental Ability in detail. Verbal Comprehension involves understanding the meaning of words and concepts - like knowing that a book is a collection of written pages. Word Fluency is about rapidly producing words, such as creating rhymes or anagrams. Number Facility refers to performing arithmetic operations quickly and accurately. Spatial Visualization involves mentally manipulating objects in space, like imagining how a square might be transformed into a triangle. The remaining three Primary Mental Abilities complete Thurstone's framework. Associative Memory involves the ability to memorize and recall paired information, such as remembering that dogs are animals or that Paris is in France. Perceptual Speed refers to the ability to quickly perceive details and recognize patterns, like rapidly identifying matching shapes in a sequence. Finally, Reasoning encompasses logical problem-solving abilities and the capacity to identify rules or patterns, such as recognizing that in the sequence 2, 4, 8, 16, each number is multiplied by 2. Thurstone's Primary Mental Abilities theory had a profound and lasting impact on psychology and education. By challenging Spearman's single g-factor model, Thurstone opened the door to multifactor theories of intelligence that recognize the complexity and diversity of human cognitive abilities. His work directly influenced the development of modern IQ tests, educational assessments, and cognitive psychology research. The theory also laid important groundwork for later theories like Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences and continues to influence neuropsychological testing and career counseling practices today.