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AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF VERBAL FLUENCY FACTORS 1
Author(s) -
Christensen Paul R.,
Guilford J. P.
Publication year - 1963
Publication title -
british journal of statistical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.157
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 2044-8317
pISSN - 0950-561X
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8317.1963.tb00195.x
Subject(s) - fluency , psychology , comprehension , verbal fluency test , cognitive psychology , test (biology) , originality , quality (philosophy) , cognition , linguistics , social psychology , mathematics education , creativity , neuropsychology , paleontology , philosophy , epistemology , neuroscience , biology
The objective of the investigation here described was to carry out a factor‐analytic study of the somewhat ambiguous area of verbal fluency, using a new approach which emphasized certain experimental features. Hypotheses regarding difference among the fluency factors were tested by systematic variations in sets of two or more parallel tests. A six‐hour battery of experimental and marker tests was administered to 221 Naval Air Cadets. Thirteen factors were extracted from the inter‐correlations of 41 variables. First‐approximation positions were obtained by placing each of nine reference axes near a single marker test in an orthogonal system. From this two rotational solutions were obtained graphically, one using the criteria of simple structure and positive manifold only with no knowledge of the tests, the other with knowledge and with the further criterion of psychological sense. The two were in general agreement. The following factors were identified: (i) four reference factors, Verbal Comprehension, General Reasoning, Writing Speed, Originality , (ii) a factor called Eduction of Conceptual Correlates ; (iii) three factors specific to parallel tests or overlapping scores; (iv) one residual factor, and (v) four fluency factors, namely Expressional Fluency (the ability to produce connected discourse, irrespective of the quality of production), Ideational Fluency (the ability to produce ideas in situations where there is little restriction and a high level of quality is not required), Word Fluency (the ability to produce words meeting structural requirements with moderate restrictions on responses), and Associational Fluency (the ability to produce isolated words to fit a given relation and unit of meaning).