Maximum likelihood confirmatory factor-analytic investigation of factors within Guilford's structure of intellect model

Joreskog's confirmatory factor-analytic methodology was used to statistically test alternative hypotheses regarding the factor structure among tests of cognition, convergent production, and divergent production that underlies correlational data from the Aptitude Research Project. Large substantive improvements in goodness-of-fit indexes over random multifactor or general (single) factor models were not found, hence, the structure-of-intellect (SI) a priori models did not provide a superior fit to the data. The conclusion is that neither the high-dimensional SI model nor the general factor model provided a plausible level of overall fit to the data. Suggestions for future research and results of exploratory factor analyses are presented. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)