2. Overview of the Woodcock-Muñoz Foundation’s (WMF) Human Cognitive Abilities (HCA) Project
2.1 WMF mission statement
The Woodcock-Muñoz Foundation's Human Cognitive Abilities (WMF HCA) project seeks to build upon the past 60+ years of factor analytic research regarding the structure of human cognitive abilities and to provide a web-based resource for students and researchers. The work of John B. Carroll serves as the foundation for this project.
The publication of Carroll's (1993) book Human Cognitive Abilities: A Survey of Factor-Analytic Studies provided a much-needed organization and integration of over 50 years of research on the structure of human cognitive abilities. Carroll reported the results of his systematic exploratory factor analysis of over 460 human cognitive ability data sets, many of which were classic data sets reported during the past 50 to 60 years. Through the application of an orderly and uniform methodology, Carroll produced an empirical meta-analysis of the extant human cognitive abilities literature.
Carroll's seminal treatise builds on the shoulders of numerous giants in the field of intelligence (e.g., Raymond Cattell, John Horn, L. L. Thurstone, Robert Thorndike, etc.).  Recently, the extant psychometric intelligence research has converged on the contemporary Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of cognitive abilities as the most empirically supported model of the structure of human intelligence. 
graphic     graphic     graphic
Raymond B. Cattell                   John L. Horn                          John B. Carroll
The Woodcock-Muñoz Foundation's Human Cognitive Abilities (WMF HCA) project supports a continuing program of research using the original data sets associated with Carroll's work via a series of internal development activities. These activities include (a) electronic archiving of the correlation matrices and associated publications from Carroll's collection, (b) the coding of both the Carroll and contemporary data sets using data set characteristic descriptors, (c) the development of a characteristic-based searchable database system for identifying data sets that meet specific search criteria, (d) the development of procedures for electronically archiving potential contemporary data set correlation matrices and associated publications, and (e) the development of mechanisms for electronically storing and disseminating portions of the HCA collection to independent researchers.
The primary goals of the HCA project are to:
  • Refine and extend our understanding of the nature of the structure of human cognitive abilities.
  • Electronically archive, document, and make accessible (to students and researchers) the 460+ data sets used in Carroll's factor analytic review.
  • Extend the factor analytic work organized by Carroll into the future vis-à-vis the supplementing of Carroll's 460+ (largely pre- 1985) data sets with additional data sets published since the mid-1980's.
  • Facilitate the development and implementation of plans for a retrospective re-analysis of the data sets analyzed by Carroll with contemporary statistical methods (e.g., confirmatory factor analysis) and prospective analysis of contemporary (post 1985) datasets.
Researchers interested in the WMF HCA project should contact Dr. Kevin McGrew, Research Director, at:
  • k.mcgrew@woodcock-munoz-foundation.org.
Reference
  • Carroll, J.B. (1993). Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor-analytic studies. New York: Cambridge University Press.
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