The Relationship Between Certain Factor Analyzed Abilities and Success in College Mathematics,
Abstract
This report describes an attempt to determine to what extent selected factors (primary abilities) are related to success in the learning of college mathematics. The nine factors are: eduction of patterns, originality, numerical facility, verbal comprehension, adaptive flexibility, general reasoning, logical evaluation, spatial visualization, and spatial orientation. Success in college mathematics was measured by professors' ratings of their students, students' grades in mathematics courses, and scores on a test of mathematics proficiency. The subjects were advanced engineering, physics, and mathematics students. The measures of originality, eduction of patterns, verbal comprehension, and general reasoning displayed little if any relationship to these criteria. The other five measures appear to be more promising. For the measures of adaptive flexibility, logical evaluation and spatial orientation the degree of relationship with the criteria of success in mathematics seems to depend upon the criterion, the curriculum, and the institution. It is therefore concluded that mathematics aptitude is not a fixed entity. (Contractor's summary) (See also AD-15 135)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1955
- Accession Number
- AD0075201
Entities
People
- John R. Hills
Organizations
- University of Southern California