Higher-Order Abilities Conceptualized with in Guilford's Structure-Of-Intellect (Soi) Model for a Sample of United States Coast Guard Academy Cadets: A Reanalysis of an Soi Data Base

Abstract

This study was undertaken to provide empirical validation of the first-order and higher-order factor structures of the structure-of-intellect (SOI) model conceptualized by Guilford. Both confirmatory maximum likelihood and exploratory (varimax and promax) factor analytic methodologies were employed to reanalyze an existing correlational data base (N - 178) involving 20 SOI experimental tests, 9 Coast Guard aptitude tests, and 10 Coast Guard criterion measures originating from the University of Southern California Aptitudes Research Project Report Number 13 entitled "The Relation of Certain Thinking Factors to Training Criteria in the U.S. Coast Guard Academy" (Guilford, Kettner, and Christensen, 1955). Although nine of the originally identified 11 first-order orthogonal factors could be replicated, oblique solutions involving higher-order factors accounted for a larger proportion of covariance among the test and criterion measures than did orthogonal solutions. The presence of identifiable first-order and higher-order correlated factors as well as a general factor suggested that the SOI model could be reconceptualized as a pyramid-like hierarchical theory of intelligence.

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