Factor analysis of perceptual and cognitive abilities tested by different methods.

A battery of visual, perceptual, and cognitive tests, believed to be important for operation of visual sonar displays, was administered to 100 sonar technicians. The measures varied from standard paper-and-pencil tests to computer-administered perceptual tasks. The results of 33 different measures on these men were compiled and subjected to a factor analysis. The factors extracted represent cohesive and reasonable groups which cut, to some extent, across testing techniques. However, all of the paper-and-pencil, perceptual-cognitive tests had high loadings on the same common factor, a result with general implications for occupational testing.