Third Source #2 Case of J.P. Guilford

Joy Paul Guilford (March 7, 1897, Marquette, Nebraska – November 26, 1987, Los Angeles) was a US psychologist, best remembered for his psychometric study of human intelligence, including the important distinction between convergent and divergent production.

According to Guilford's Structure of Intellect (SI) theory, an individual's performance on intelligence tests can be traced back to the underlying mental abilities or factors of intelligence. SI theory comprises up to 150 different intellectual abilities organized along three dimensions—Operations, Content, and Products.

Operations Dimension

SI includes six operations or general intellectual processes:

Cognition—The ability to understand, comprehend, discover, and become aware of information.

Memory recording—The ability to encode information.

Memory retention—The ability to recall information.

Divergent production—The ability to generate multiple solutions to a problem; creativity.

Convergent production—The ability to deduce a single solution to a problem; rule-following or problem-solving.

Evaluation—The ability to judge whether or not information is accurate, consistent, or valid.

Content Dimension

SI includes five broad areas of information to which the human intellect applies the six operations:

Visual—Information perceived through seeing.

Auditory—Information perceived through hearing.

Kinesthetic—Information perceived through one's own physical actions.

Symbolic—Information perceived as symbols or signs that have no meaning by themselves; e.g., Arabic numerals or the letters of an alphabet.

Semantic-Which is concerned with verbal meaning and ideas.

Behavioral—Information perceived as acts of people.

Product Dimension

As the name suggests, this dimension contains results of applying particular operations to specific contents. The SI model includes six products, in increasing complexity:

Units—Single items of knowledge.

Classes—Sets of units sharing common attributes.

Relations—Units linked as opposites or in associations, sequences, or analogies.

Systems—Multiple relations interrelated to comprise structures or networks.

Transformations—Changes, perspectives, conversions, or mutations to knowledge.

Implications—Predictions, inferences, consequences, or anticipations of knowledge.