A Factor Analysis of Mechanical Ability Tests
- 1 March 1940
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Psychometrika
- Vol. 5 (1) , 17-33
- https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02288557
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.Keywords
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