A Factor-Analytic Study of Flexibility in Thinking

Frick, J. W.; Guilford, J. P.; Christensen, P. R.; Merrifield, Philip R.

doi:10.1177/001316445901900401

Cited by 49 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…control may be one manifestation of the more general dimension of adaptive fiexibility which has been identified by Frick, Guilford, Christensen & Merrifield (1959) as one factor in a large scale study of 'rigidity ' tests.…”

Section: Imagery Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

The meaning and measurement of memory imagery

Richardson¹

1977

British J of Psychology

123

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Some contemporary trends in social and clinical psychology suggest that individual differences in imaging abilities may become increasingly important. This paper outlines some of the conceptual and methodological problems that must be clarified if productive research is to be undertaken and reports the results of three studies designed to isolate tests which might provide independent measures of imagery vividness and imagery control.

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Section: Imagery Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

The meaning and measurement of memory imagery

Richardson¹

1977

British J of Psychology

123

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“…Spearman (1927) held that the obverse of perseveration was cleverness or originality, but not simply ideational fluency (Spearman & Wynn Jones, 1950). Guilford later showed that perseveration was opposed by measures of spontaneous flexibility or the divergent production of classes (Frick, Guilford, Christensen, & Merrifield, 1959). In terms of Spearman's quantitative formulation of intelligence, g represents the amount of mental energy, perseveration represents its inertia in shifting from one operation to another, and oscillation its facility of recuperation after mental effort.…”

Section: Energy and Capacity As Enduring Concepts Of Intelligence Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Abilities and Modes of Attention: The Issue of Stylistic Consistencies in Cognition

Messick

1993

ETS Research Report Series

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Spearman's notions of mental energy and mental span presage modern conceptions of attentional resources and working memory as fundamental to intelligence. Viewing attention as the conative directing of the intellect, as “the application of intellectual energy,” Spearman's quantitative law of mental span deals with limits on the allocation of attention. Because attentional resources are salient in both historical and current conceptions of intelligence, the occurrence of multiple and alternative modes of attention complicates these theories. Moreover, such consistent individual differences in attentional mode have important implications for the theory and measurement of cognitive processing more generally. Specifically, two broad bipolar factors have been identified that contrast sharp‐focus versus broad‐focus scanning and signal versus information scanning. These stylistic factors are linked to personality and reflect not only the enhancement of information processing in the focus of attention, but also the possibility of parallel processing in the fringe invoking the potential need for active inhibition of distracting or competing processes – points that were also anticipated by Spearman.

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“…Usually, divergent production is evaluated from two points of view-qualitative and quantitative, and therefore, Guilford (1959Guilford ( , 1971 referred to the quantitative side as fluency and to the qualitative side as flexibility in his study.…”

Section: Study Imentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 1954, Guilford and his associates began to study creative thinking abilities and found that there were two distinct flexibility factors in the area of thinking which they designated as spontaneous flexibility and adaptive flexibility (1954). Further, they found that spontaneous flexibility and adaptive flexibility were qualities psychologically opposite to two kinds of rigidity of thinking-perseveration and persistencerespectively (Frick, Guilford, Christensen, & Merrifield 1959). Guilford (1971) presented a S. I. mode] (structure of intelligence), and classified spontaneous flexibility into DM factor (divergent production of semantic material) and adaptive flexibility into DF factor (divergent production of divergent thinking pattern was one of the most important factors concerning creative thinking.…”

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confidence: 99%

Creative Thinking and Random Number Generation Test

Matsuda

1973

Jpn. Psychol. Res

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Guilford (1971) referred the concept of divergent production as one of the most important factors concerning creative thinking. On the other hand, Murakami (1972) has been developing Random Number Generation Test in order to measure the ability of human information processing and he introduced the concept of probablistic information processing for this purpose. In this study , the author intended to demonstrate the following 2 points; (a) there was a significant correlation between these two conceptsdivergent production suggested by Guilford and probablistic information processing suggested by Murakami , (b) Random Number Generation Test was one of the desirable tests concerning DS factor (divergent production of symbolic material). These 2 points were approximately clarified .

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A Factor-Analytic Study of Flexibility in Thinking

Cited by 49 publications

References 16 publications

The meaning and measurement of memory imagery

The meaning and measurement of memory imagery

Human Abilities and Modes of Attention: The Issue of Stylistic Consistencies in Cognition

Creative Thinking and Random Number Generation Test

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