The Structure of the Mind: A Review of the Results of Factor Analysis

How to use individual differences to isolate functional organization, biology, and utility of visual functions; with illustrative proposals for stereopsis

“…Though this is less true of vision tests (Pickford 1951;Burt, 1949), a lack of correlation between two similar tests -a proximal dissociation -is still impressive. Conversely, a sizable correlation between two dissimilar tests -a remote association -is also impressive.…”

“…Such methods have also contributed to our knowledge of the functional organization of color vision (Bimler, Kirkland & Jameson, 2004;Gunther & Dobkins, 2003;Burt, 1949;Jones, 1948) and motion perception (Morrone et al, 1999). In addition, individual differences based studies have yielded insights into the functional organization of color vision (Malkoc et al, 2005;Webster et al, 2000aWebster et al, ,b, 2002Pickford, 1951), stereopsis (van Ee & Richards, 2002;van Ee, 2003;Scharff, 1997;Regan et al, 1986;Richards & Lieberman, 1985;Richards & Regan, 1973), and shape from shading (Adams, 2007) without explicitly using latent variable models.…”

Validity

“…Although both Guilford and Cattell identify a few basic processes as innate, they give equal or greater prominence to environmental influences, emphasizing the experiential development of differentiated abilities through learning and transfer. In contrast, those theorists stressing the predominance of heri tability, like Jensen (1972) or Burt (1949Burt ( , 1955, tend to stress as well a single -102 -overarcrunq general factor of intelligence. Granted that the issues of heredity versus environmental impact are complex if not intractable.…”

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

“…In contrast, Burt (1949) reported a bipolar factor of fixating versus diffusive attention that was related to both perseveration and emotional stability. Although Burt felt that this factor should probably be regarded as temperamental rather than cognitive, he noted its similarity to Spearman's descriptions of the typical perseverator versus oscillator, thereby linking Spearman's additional general factors of perseveration and oscillation to attentional modes.…”