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A factor analysis of mechanical ability tests

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Abstract

The intercorrelations of thirty-seven variables, including the Minnesota battery of “mechanical ability” tests, the seven MacQuarrie tests of “mechanical ability,” O'Connor's Wiggly blocks, and the Stenquist picture-matching test, were analyzed by Thurstone's centroid method. Five factors, Perceptual, Verbal, Youth, Manual Agility, and Spatial, were taken out. Factors prominent in so-called mechanical ability tests are the Spatial and Perceptual ones with Mac-Quarrie's dotting test significantly high in the Manual Agility factor. Each of the factors can be measured with group pencil-and-paper tests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Illinois, USA

    Willard Harrell

Authors
  1. Willard Harrell
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Acknowledgment is gratefully made to the State Engineering Experiment Station at the Georgia School of Technology for sponsoring and financially supporting the studies; to the Graduate Research Committee of the University of Illinois for providing funds for the purchase of tests and the tabulation of data; and to Dr. E. L. Welker of the University of Illinois Mathematics Department for assistance with statistical problems.

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Harrell, W. A factor analysis of mechanical ability tests. Psychometrika 5, 17–33 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02288557

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02288557

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