Who is charles spearman

Charles Spearman was well known as the pioneer of factor analysis as a statistical technique to reduce and interpret data. He was the first psychologist who used the application of mathematical models for analyzing and interpreting the complexities present in human mind. He was an English psychologist who gave the concept of General intelligence or more commonly g factor through which he defined intelligence as a cognitive ability which can be measured and expressed numerically.

Using the technique of factor analysis, he conducted a study to prove this theory through which he observed and inferred that people with higher intelligence levels did well on series of mental aptitude tests whereas people with lower intelligence did not perform well enough on all these tests.

Born in London, United Kingdom on 10 th September he showed an unusual talent and ability of becoming a psychologist from childhood. He started off his career by joining the British army.

After serving the British army for 15 years he resigned to study for a PhD in experimental psychology. His title changed to Professor of Psychology in when a separate Department of Psycholgy was created.

When Spearman was elected to the Royal Society in the citation read "Dr. Spearman has made many researches in experimental psychology. His many published papers cover a wide field, but he is especially distinguished by his pioneer work in the application of mathematical methods to the analysis of the human mind, and his original studies of correlation in this sphere.

He has inspired and directed research work by many pupils. Spearman was strongly influenced by the work of Francis Galton.

Galton did pioneering work in psychology and developed correlation, the main statistical tool used by Spearman. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile.

Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. General intelligence, also known as g factor , refers to the existence of a broad mental capacity that influences performance on cognitive ability measures.

Other terms such as intelligence, IQ , general cognitive ability, and general mental ability are also used interchangeably to mean the same thing as general intelligence. General intelligence can be defined as a construct that is made up of different cognitive abilities. These abilities allow people to acquire knowledge and solve problems. This general mental ability is what underlies specific mental skills related to areas such as spatial, numerical, mechanical, and verbal abilities.

The idea is that this general intelligence influences performance on all cognitive tasks. General intelligence can be compared to athleticism. A person might be a very skilled runner, but this does not necessarily mean that they will also be an excellent figure skater. However, because this person is athletic and fit, they will probably perform much better on other physical tasks than an individual who is less coordinated and more sedentary.

Psychologist Charles Spearman helped develop a statistical technique known as factor analysis, which allows researchers to use a number of different test items to measure common abilities. For example, researchers might find that people who score well on questions that measure vocabulary also perform better on questions related to reading comprehension.

In , he suggested that this g factor was responsible for overall performance on mental ability tests. He noted that while people certainly could and often did excel in certain areas, people who did well in one area tended also to do well in other areas. All tasks on intelligence tests, whether they related to verbal or mathematical abilities, were influenced by this underlying g factor. There are several key components that are believed to make up general intelligence.

Many modern intelligence tests measure some of the cognitive factors that are thought to make up general intelligence. Such tests propose that intelligence can be measured and expressed by a single number, such as an IQ score.

The Stanford-Binet, which is one of the most popular intelligence tests , aims to measure the g factor. In addition to providing an overall score, the current version of the test also offers a number of score composites as well as subtest scores in ten different areas. While scoring systems vary, the average score on many is and the following labels are often used for different scoring ranges:.

While the concept of intelligence is still the subject of debate within psychology, researchers believe that general intelligence is correlated with overall success in life.

One of the most obvious effects of general intelligence is in the realm of academic performance. While intelligence plays a role in academics, there has been a great deal of debate over the extent to which it influences academic achievement. Research has shown that there is a strong association between general mental ability and academic achievement, but it doesn't act on its own. This means that while general intelligence does affect how well kids do in school, other factors can play a major role.