Are the General Factors From Different Child And Adolescent Intelligence Tests the Same? Results From a Five-Sample, Six-Test Analysis

Abstract

.Psychometric g is the largest, most general, and most predictive factor underlying individual differences across cognitive tasks included in intelligence tests. Given that the overall score from intelligence tests is interpreted as an index of psychometric g, we examined the correlations between general factors extracted from individually administered intelligence tests using data from five samples of children and adolescents (n = 83 to n = 200) who completed at least two of six intelligence tests. We found strong correlations between the general factors indicating that these intelligence tests measure the same construct, psychometric g. A total of three general-factor correlations exceeded .95, but two other correlations were somewhat lower (.89 and .92). In addition, specific ability factors correlated highly across tests in most (but not all) cases. School psychologists and other professionals should know that psychometric g and several specific abilities are measured in remarkably similar ways across a wide array of intelligence tests.