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Show Measure Found For Aptitudes WASHINGTON. - Wartime aptitude apti-tude tests of army air forces have revealed six hitherto unrecognized factors in human ability which are measurable, and there Is a strong suggestion of at least 10 others. This has been reported to the American Association for the Advancement of j Science by Dr. J. P. Guilford of the University of Southern California, who had a leading part In constructing construct-ing the tests. First is the "space factor." It consists, he said, "In a preceptual awareness ot the arrangement ot objects ob-jects with respect to right-left, up-down up-down and in-out dimensions." Correct Cor-rect choice as to dimension ot movement depends on It This ability abil-ity varies greatly from person to person. A factor which Guilford calls "manipulatory visualization" is shown by a test requiring one to imagine transformations, movements move-ments or other changes. A typical test presents a picture ot a square ot paper being folded one or more times in successive steps and a hole of given shape being cut out The person being examined selects one of five other pictures, each showing plausible creases and holes, as the paper would appear after being unfolded. un-folded. General Factors Vary. Third is a general factor which seems to run through all mechanical mechani-cal ability, from tinkering to skill in manipulating a steam shovel A fourth factor is ability to estimate ; correctly the length of lines. This i also varies greatly among Individ-' Individ-' uals. Distinct from manipulatory vlsu-; vlsu-; alization Is a factor which Guilford . calls "visual memory" the ability to describe a stationary object from memory. The two factors probably depend, he says, on different properties prop-erties ot the visual cortex at the back of the brain and they perhaps are dependent on different groups of brain cells. A person may be good in one kind of visualization and quite poor In the other. Another new factor he describes as "Judgment the ability to estimate esti-mate correctly sizes, times and distances." dis-tances." "It actually may be a fourth kind of reasoning," he says, "which has been almost entirely missed in most Intelligence tests." Last of the verified new factors is psychometer co-ordination In finger dexterity and use ot arms and legs in such tests as using mock airplane controls. Two Kinds of Reasoning. , He further discriminates ability In two kinds ot reasoning which do not seem to be related reasoning by analogy and reasoning by induction induc-tion and deduction. He says: "These tests suggest that the term 'reasoning' 'reason-ing' conceals a number of unrecognized unrecog-nized functions. Some of these may be determined biologically, but others oth-ers may be in the form of reasoning reason-ing habits brought about -by education. educa-tion. Until the variables are better defined in this area, studies or training train-ing in thinking and of the problems of formal discipline cannot be effected ef-fected adequately." The air force tests also showed, Guilford says, the probability of two hitherto unrecognized forms ot space perception and two distinct kinds of memory. All these factors, it is pointed out in the report, are statistically independent of each other. 1 |