- ‘Group Factor’ term was proposed to describe the ‘Group Factor’ theory.
- Psychologist Louis L. Thurston (1887-1955) offered a differing theory of intelligence. Instead of viewing intelligence as a single, general ability, Thurston’s theory focused on nine different “primary factors”. These primary factors are independent of each other.
- The abilities that he identified are as follows:
- Spatial factor: It is involved in visualizing shapes.
- Verbal factor: It is concerned with comprehension of verbal ideas.
- Word fluency factor: It is involved whenever the subject is asked to think of isolated words at a rapid rate.
- Numerical factor: It is the ability to do numerical calculations.
- Memory factor: It is the ability to memorize quickly.
- Inductive Reasoning factor: It is the ability to draw inferences.
- Perceptual factor: It is the ability to perceive objects accurately.
- Deductive Reasoning factor: It is the ability to make use of generalized results.
- Problem-solving ability factor: It is the ability to solve problems independently.
- The weakest aspect of the group factor theory was that it discarded the concept of the common factor.