Who is Louis Leon Thurston?

Louis Leon Thurstone better known as L.L Thurstone has made tremendous contributions in understanding and emphasizing the different types of intelligence. Credited for being the United States pioneer in the field of Psychometrics and Psychophysics, Thurstone also created the approach to measurement known as the law of comparative judgment. His other contribution to psychometrics involves his creation and implementation of factor analysis.

The purpose of Thurstones work was to emphasize the different types of intelligence rather than focusing on a single factor of general intelligence. From an educator perspective this frame of mind and way of thinking has been monumental in better understanding and assessing the way in which people learn. Thurstone also was able to recognize the diversity of human’s abilities and how intelligence varies along a very wide spectrum.

This way of thinking led to Thurstones greatest contributions in the field of Psychometrics. Psychometrics which is a field that focuses on theory and technique of educational and psychological measurement focuses on traits such as knowledge, abilities, attitudes, as well as personality traits. It was Thurstone who furthered this way of thinking identifying and addressing the various ways in which intelligences is categorized.

His vast contribution to Psychometrics came with what has been recognized as his principle work. The Vectors of Mind presented Thurstone’s rejection behind the idea that any one factor had a more general application than others. From this Thurstone presented the method of factor analysis which helped to explain what he had identified as a correlation between outcome results and psychological tests. These types of studies led to Thurston’s development of Primary Mental Abilities which measured components of human intelligence this included; word fluency, verbal comprehension, facility with numbers, spatial visualization, and rote memory.

Louis Leon Thurstone made dramatic contributions to not only Psychometrics but society in general. Thurstones way of thinking and ability to identify intelligence in a variety of different ways has lead directly to the creation and understanding of multiple intelligence. The multiple intelligence theory has contributed tremendously to understanding the way in which people learn and how to best address them. Without Thurstone and his contribution and understanding of intelligence we as educators may have never truly understood how people learn.