Collectively,
the large and small sample structural validity studies published during the past decade
support the broad strokes (i.e., broad stratum II abilities) of contemporary CHC theory. The
broad abilities of Gf, Gc, Gv, Ga, Gsm, Glr, Gs, Gq, an Grw have been validated in and
across
studies that have included a sufficient breadth of CHC indicators to draw valid conclusions.
Although using the Cattell-Horn Gf-Gc theory as a guide, Stankov (2000) reached a similar
conclusion (with the exception of Grw not being included in his review).
It
is likely that no single comprehensive study will ever include the necessary breadth of variables
to allow for a definitive test of the complete structure of human cognitive abilities. Instead,
increasingly better designed and comprehensive studies, when viewed collectively from a CHC-
organized theoretical lens, can provide for increasingly “satisficing” solutions that approximate
the
ideal. The research studies just reviewed, as well as those included in the next section, contribute
to the ongoing search for increasingly satisficing approximations of a psychometric model of the
structure of human cognitive abilities.
[Note.
Economist Herbert Simon first introduced the term satisficing (Simon, 1957, 2003), a word that
is a
combination of the words satisfying and sufficing. To satisfice is to seek solutions and
designs that are
“good or satisfactory solutions instead of optimal ones” (Petroski, 2003, p.8). According
to Simon, decision
makers (in the current context, researchers) must make choices between optimal decisions for an imaginary
simplified world or decisions that are “good enough” (that satisfice) in that they allow a
reasonable
approximation of the complexity of reality within given constraints (Petroski, 2003).]
1. 1. Introduction
