... Spearman, and he called it a 'two factor theory' (Spearman 1904). It is arguably the most influential approach to intelligence with the most supporters. Unlike other theorists however, he doesn't appear to attempt to define intelligence, but regards it as just 'cognitive ability'. To create the theory, he gave self constructed, 6 part intelligence tests to Hampshire schoolchildren and factor analysed their results. He discovered that the six different areas of intelligence positively correlated together, to form just one factor. He labelled this factor of general ability (or the positive manifold which he earlier called it because all the correlations were positive) as (g) and the specific factors which make them unique and different as (s). From this he concluded that children tend to roughly score the same in all areas of attainment. They have an innate ability level across all areas, rather than being good at some things and ...

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