Abstract
Dr. WILLIAM STEPHENSON, who has succeeded Dr. William Brown as director of the Institute of Experimental Psychology at Oxford, was appointed assistant director on its foundation in 1936. He had previously held the position of tutor and supervisor of postgraduate students in psychology at University College, London, and had specialized in mental testing and in the correlations of mental aptitudes with one another, having before that worked under the late Prof. Charles Spearman, who regarded him as his most outstanding pupil. Dr. Stephenson's researches in statistical psychology proved, among other things, the existence of a verbal factor, distinct from general intelligence, which needed to be ‘partialled out’ before correlation coefficients between mental tests could give mathematical support to Spearman's theory of a central intellective factor, g. Indeed, his joint research with Dr. William Brown, entitled “A Test of the Theory of Two Factors” (Brit. J. Psychol., 23; 1933); and summarized in Nature (130, 588; 1932, and 133, 724; 1934), was held by Spearman to be the most adequate and convincing vindication yet produced of the scientific claims of his theory of g. During the Second World War, Dr. Stephenson was in charge of the work of applying mental tests in the Army. When the scientific results of this work come to be published, it should be found to be of the greatest interest and importance.
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Institute of Experimental Psychology, Oxford Dr. William Stephenson. Nature 158, 938 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/158938c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/158938c0