INTELLIGENCE AND THE ABILITY TO LEARN

Abstract

ABSTRACT The attempt to discover the relationships between learning and intelligence and between learning in one task and learning in other tasks has been relatively unsuccessful until recently. Correlations of gains or other learning measures with intelligence and with measures of learning in other tasks were generally found to be low, leading many investigators to conclude that learning ability and intelligence are unrelated and that each learning task requires its own specific learning ability. A methodological advance was made in the early 1950's in the area of motor learning. A number of ability tests were factor analyzed in a battery which included scores made at various stages of practice on a complex psychomotor task. Inspection of the loadings indicated that abilities did contribute to the learning performance, thus establishing a relationship between abilities and learning. The same approach has since been applied to cognitive tasks with the finding that learning and abilities are related, but that there are also learning factors which are independent of the measured abilities. The present study was an attempt to clarify these learning factors. Nine learning tasks and a battery of ability tests were administered to 102 sixth‐grade children. The tasks were of three types, concept formation, paired associates, and rote memory, each type including one task with verbal, one with numerical, and one with figural material. The ability measures included intelligence, scholastic achievement, associative memory, memory span, number facility, perceptual speed, reasoning, and vocabulary. Each learning task was subjected to a separate factor analysis in order to determine the number of factors necessary to describe the learning performances of the subjects on that task. Factor scores were then calculated for the subjects, and the factor scores of all the subjects on all the tasks were entered in a factor analysis together with the scores on the ability measures. Seven factors were extracted and rotated to an equamax solution. One factor was found to be specific to the ability measures. It was interpreted as a speed factor. Three factors were common to the ability and learning measures. They were interpreted as verbal ability, rote‐memory ability, and reasoning ability. Three factors were specific to the learning measures. They were interpreted as verbal learning, nonverbal learning, and concept formation. It was concluded that (a) measured abilities are related to measured learning performance, (b) learning performance depends upon factors which are independent of ability measures, (c) learning in one task is related to learning in others, and (d) performance in concept‐formation tasks is not related to the ability measures used or to performance in rote‐memory tasks.

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