Identifying general factors of intelligence: A confirmatory factor analysis of the ball aptitude battery

Research supports a hierarchical factor structure of intelligence that is c onsistent with the second-order factor model proposed by Gustafsson in whic h five first-order factors yield a single second-order factor of General In telligence (g). Gustafsson's model was tested with structural equation mode ling via the Ball Aptitude Battery (BAB), a measure of aptitudes and vocati onal interests. This study focuses on the tests from the BAB that are belie ved to measure various aspects of intelligence: Numerical Computation, Nume rical Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Analytical Reasoning, Paper Folding, Idea Fluency, Idea Generation, Vocabulary, Associative Memory, Auditory Mem ory, Clerical, and Writing Speed. Results indicate that the factor structur e of the BAB is consistent with Gustafsson's second-order factor model of i ntelligence. Implications of this finding are discussed.