Lecture 2 :Defining Abilities through the Person Characteristic Function

Abstract

Factor analysis aids in identifying the dimensions of ability and in understanding something about how general or specific these abilities are with respect to the domain of possible cognitive tasks. The mathematical parts of factor analysis do not, however, indicate what these abilities are, or anything about their nature. Traditionally, information of this character has been developed by largely subjective interpretation of test content. The procedure has been to examine the tests or variables having high loadings on a particular factor, contrasting these tests with those having low or vanishing loadings on that factor. One then attempts to infer what common elements are involved in the high-loading tests and not in the low-loading tests or variables.