Structure of Intellect (J.P.

Guilford)
In Guilford's Structure of Intellect (SI) theory, intelligence is viewed as comprising operations, contents,
and products. There are 5 kinds of operations (cognition, memory, divergent production, convergent
production, evaluation), 6 kinds of products (units, classes, relations, systems, transformations, and
implications), and 5 kinds of contents (visual, auditory, symbolic, semantic, behavioral). Since each of
these dimensions is independent,
there are theoretically 150 different
components of intelligence.
Guilford researched and developed
a wide variety of psychometric tests
to measure the specific abilities
predicted by SI theory. These tests
provide an operational definition of
the many abilities proposed by the
theory. Furthermore, factor analysis
was used to determine which tests
appeared to measure the same or
different abilities.
Parenthetically, it is interesting to
note that a major impetus for
Guilford's theory was his interest in
creativity (Guilford, 1950). The divergent production operation identifies a number of different types of
creative abilities.

Application
SI theory is intended to be a general theory of human intelligence. Its major application (besides
educational research) has been in personnel selection and placement. Meeker (1969) examines its
application to education.

Example
The following example illustrates three closely related abilities that differ in terms of operation, content,
and product. Evaluation of semantic units (EMU) is measured by the ideational fluency test in which
individuals are asked to make judgements about concepts. For example: "Which of the following objects
best satisfies the criteria, hard and round: an iron, a button, a tennis ball or a lightbulb? On the other
hand, divergent production of semantic units (DMU) would require the person to list all items they can
think of that are round and hard in a given time period. Divergent production of symbolic units (DSU)
involves a different content category than DMU, namely words (e.g., "List all words that end in 'tion').
Divergent production of semantic relations (DMR) would involve the generation of ideas based upon
relationships. An example test item for this ability would be providing the missing word for the sentence:
"The fog is as ____ as sponge" (e.g., heavy, damp, full).

Principles

1. Reasoning and problem-solving skills (convergent and divergent operations) can be subdivided
into 30 distinct abilities (6 products x 5 contents).
2. Memory operations can be subdivided into 30 different skills (6 products x 5 contents).
3. Decision-making skills (evaluation operations) can be subdivided into 30 distinct abilities (6
products x 5 contents).
4. Language-related skills (cognitive operations) can be subdivided into 30 distinct abilities (6
products x 5 contents)