2008/08/18 by Moritz Heene, Heene, Moritz
Mathematics · Psychology · #Applications (stat.AP) #Cognitive Abilities and Testing #FOS: Computer and information sciences #stat.AP
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0808.2343
Typos corrected
openalex publication_date 2008/08/18 · arxiv created 2008/08/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In 2000 Nicholas J. Mackintosh (2000) published an article in "Nature" referring to the concept of general intelligence ("g") claiming that there is clear empirical evidence for the existence of the g factor and psychologists are "united in their support of g". Surprisingly, his view remained yet unchallenged although this issue is by no means as clear-cut as Mackintosh argues. Let us therefore attempt to clarify some common but unfortunately major misconceptions about g, which Mackintosh, following Jensen's (1998) precedent, recounted in his "Nature" article. The bottom line is that Spearman's g does not exist, that this has been known and acknowledged by leading scholars (Guttman, 1992; Thurstone, 1947) of factor analysis for decades so that the task of objectively defining human intelligence remains unfinished.