J. P. Guilford

Joy Paul Guilford (1897–1988) was a US psychologist, best remembered for his psychometric study of human intelligence.

He graduated from the University of Nebraska before studying under Edward Titchener at Cornell. He then held a number of posts at Nebraska and briefly at the University of Southern California before becoming Director of Psychological Research at Santa Ana Army Air Base in 1941. There he worked on the selection and ranking of aircrew trainees.

Developing the views of L. L. Thurstone, Guilford rejected Charles Spearman's view that intelligence could be characterised in a single numerical parameter and proposed that three dimensions were necessary for accurate description:


 * Content
 * Operations
 * Productions

He made the important distinction between convergent and divergent production.