Horn & Cattell (1966) was a landmark study in the advancement of intelligence theory. It prompted Cattell to refine his original gf-gc theory, bringing it closer to Thurstone’s (1938) Primary Mental Abilities. The paper’s EFA methods are a little out of date, so I wanted to see what would happen if modern EFA methods were applied. I also removed the personality variables from the analysis, as they seemed to clutter the results.
A heatmap of the correlation matrix from their Table 3 gives a nice preview of the factor analytic results:
I see 3 big clusters, 2 of which split into 2 smaller clusters.
Parallel analysis
A parallel analysis with n = 297 participants suggests 4 factors, perhaps 5:
Let’s extract up to 5 factors, starting with just a single factor.
1 Factor
Nothing to see here except the familiar finding that the reasoning tests have high g loadings and the speeded tests have lower g loadings.
2 Factors
Does this look like gf-gc theory 1.0? It does to me!
3 Factors
This looks like the higher-order gf-gc-gs factors from Schneider & McGrew (2018).
4 Factors
Here we see that gf splits into Gf and Gv:
5 factors
gs (General Speediness) splits into Gs and Gr
These results are in line with CHC Theory (McGrew, 2005, 2009; Schneider & McGrew, 2012; Schneider & McGrew, 2018), as they should be. Not much has changed! This is a good thing. Consistent results engender trust.
References
Horn, J. L., & Cattell, R. B. (1966). Refinement and test of the theory of fluid and crystallized general intelligences. Journal of Educational Psychology, 57(5), 253–270. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0023816
McGrew, K. S. (2005). The cattell-horn-carroll theory of cognitive abilities: Past, present, and future. In D. P. Flanagan & P. L. Harrison (Eds.), Contemporary intellectual assessment. Theories, tests, and issues (2nd ed., pp. 136–181). Guilford Press.
McGrew, K. S. (2009). CHC theory and the human cognitive abilities project: Standing on the shoulders of the giants of psychometric intelligence research. Intelligence, 37(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2008.08.004
Schneider, W. J., & McGrew, K. S. (2012). The cattell-horn-carroll model of intelligence. In D. P. Flanagan & P. L. Harrison (Eds.), Contemporary intellectual assessment: Theories, tests, and issues (3rd ed., pp. 99–144). Guilford Press. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-09043-004
Schneider, W. J., & McGrew, K. S. (2018). The Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory of cognitive abilities. In D. P. Flanagan & E. M. McDonough (Eds.), Contemporary intellectual assessment: Theories, tests, and issues (4th ed., pp. 73–130). Guilford Press. https://www.guilford.com/books/Contemporary-Intellectual-Assessment/Flanagan-McDonough/9781462552030
Thurstone, L. L. (1938). Primary mental abilities. University of Chicago Press.
Citation
BibTeX citation:
@misc{schneider,
author = {Schneider, W. Joel and Joel Schneider, W.},
title = {Horn \& {Cattell} (1966)},
url = {https://wjschne.github.io/AssessingPsyche/2025-05-18-horn-cattell-1966/horncattell1966.html},
langid = {en}
}
For attribution, please cite this work as:
Schneider, W. J., & Joel Schneider, W. (n.d.). Horn & Cattell
(1966). AssessingPsyche. https://wjschne.github.io/AssessingPsyche/2025-05-18-horn-cattell-1966/horncattell1966.html