The Closure Factors Related to Other Cognitive Processes

Abstract

Twenty-five group tests, assembled with certain hypotheses concerning the first and second closure factors in mind, were administered to 154 subjects, mostly graduate students. The intercorrelations were analyzed factorially, yielding eight factors that were rotated to an oblique simple structure. The factors were interpreted as: speed of closure, C 1 ; flexibility of closure, C 2 ; verbal closure, C 3 ; word fluency, W; reasoning, R; perceptual speed, P; the first space factor, S 1 ; and speed of handwriting, H. Four second-order factors were tentatively described as analytical ability, synthetic ability, speed of perception, and word fluency. Three of the reasoning tests had their highest loadings on C 2 and one on C 3 , which seems to be evidence that flexibility of closure generalizes in the cognitive domain and is associated with analytical ability.