Louis Leon Thurstone

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Louis Leon Thurstone
Born(1887-05-29)29 May 1887
James Angell
Doctoral studentsLedyard Tucker

Louis Leon Thurstone (29 May 1887 – 29 September 1955)[1] was an American pioneer in the fields of psychometrics and psychophysics. He conceived the approach to measurement known as the law of comparative judgment, and is well known for his contributions to factor analysis.[2][3] A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Thurstone as the 88th most cited psychologist of the 20th century, tied with John Garcia, James J. Gibson, David Rumelhart, Margaret Floy Washburn, and Robert S. Woodworth.[4]

Background and history

Thurstone was born in

the structure of DNA.[6] 1952, he established the L. L. Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[7][8]

Factor analysis and work on intelligence

Thurstone was responsible for the standardized mean and

Intelligence Test system originally used by Alfred Binet. He is also known for the development of the Thurstone scale.[9]

Thurstone's work in factor analysis led him to formulate a model of intelligence centered on "Primary Mental Abilities" (PMAs), which were independent group factors of intelligence that different individuals possessed in varying degrees. He opposed the notion of a singular

Stanford-Binet IQ test.[10]

The seven primary mental abilities in Thurstone's model were verbal comprehension, word fluency, number facility, spatial visualization, associative memory, perceptual speed, and reasoning.

Contributions to measurement

Despite his contributions to factor analysis, Thurstone (1959, p. 267) cautioned: "When a problem is so involved that no rational formulation is available, then some quantification is still possible by the coefficients of correlation of contingency and the like. But such statistical procedures constitute an acknowledgement of failure to rationalize the problem and to establish functions that underlie the data. We want to measure the separation between the two opinions on the attitude continuum and we want to test the validity of the assumed continuum by means of its internal consistency". Thurstone's approach to measurement was termed the law of comparative judgment. He applied the approach in psychophysics, and later to the measurement of psychological values. The so-called 'Law', which can be regarded as a measurement model, involves subjects making a comparison between each of a number of pairs of stimuli with respect to magnitude of a property, attribute, or attitude. Methods based on the approach to measurement can be used to estimate such scale values.[11]

Thurstone's Law of comparative judgment has important links to modern approaches to social and psychological measurement. In particular, the approach bears a close conceptual relation to the

epistemological requirement of measurement later articulated by Rasch, which is that relative scale locations must 'transcend' the group measured; i.e. scale locations must be invariant to (or independent of) the particular group of persons instrumental to comparisons between the stimuli. Thurstone (1929) also articulated what he referred to as the additivity criterion for scale differences, a criterion which must be satisfied in order to obtain interval-level measurements.[12]

Awards and honors

Thurstone received numerous awards, including: Best Article,

University of Göteborg (1954). Thurstone was President of American Psychological Association (1933) and first President of the American Psychometric Society (1936).[13] He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1937,[14] the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1938,[15] and the American Philosophical Society in 1938.[16]

Selected works

See also

References

  1. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1400635
    . (subscription required)
  2. ^ L.L. Thurstone (Indiana University)
  3. ^ E. G. Boring; H. S. Langfeld; H. Werner; R. M. Yerkes, eds. (1952). "L. L. Thurstone" (PDF). A History of Psychology in Autobiography. Vol. IV. Worcester, MA: Clark University Press. pp. 295–321. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 June 2010.
  4. S2CID 145668721
    .
  5. ^ Adkins, Dorothy C. (1964). "Louis Leon Thurstone: Creative Thinker, Dedicated Teacher, Eminent Psychologist". In Frederiksen, Norman; Gulliksen, Harold (eds.). Contributions to Mathematical Psychology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winson. pp. 1–40.
  6. ISBN 978-1-9821-1585-2
    .
  7. ^ Swedes in America (Benson, Adolph B.; Naboth Hedin. New York: Haskel House Publishers. 1969)
  8. ^ L. L. Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory (University of North Carolina)
  9. PMID 13274085
    .
  10. ^ "Louis Leon Thurstone, 1887–1955". Individual Differences Homepage. Archived from the original on 13 December 2003.
  11. ^ Louis Leon Thurstone 1887–1955 (J. P. Guilford O National Academy of Science. 1957)[1]
  12. ^ Louis Leon Thurstone Biography (LoveToKnow, Corp.)
  13. ^ L.L. Thurstone (Human Intelligence)
  14. ^ "Louis Leon Thurstone". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 10 February 2023. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  15. ^ "Louis Thurstone". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  16. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 6 March 2023.

Sources

External links
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