Vehicles of spatial ability Roberto Colom*, M a Jose´ Contreras, Juan Botella, Jose´ Santacreu Facultad de Psicologı´a, Universidad Auto ´noma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain Received 22 January 2001; received in revised form 4 April 2001 Abstract Spatial ability implies the generation, retention, retrieval, and transformation of visuo-spatial informa- tion. Factor analytic research has identified a broad array of spatial factors. Visualization (Vz) and Spatial relations (SR) are among the most cited. Dynamic spatial performance (DSP) has emerged in more recent times as a new strong candidate. However, there are some doubts about the existence of clear separate spatial factors. On the one hand, general spatial ability (Gv) has a substantial overlap with fluid reasoning (Gf). On the other hand, as Carroll’s [Carroll, J. B. (1993). Human cognitive abilities: a survey of factor analytic studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] survey notes, procedures of measurement are in need of considerable refinement. A battery of Vz, SR, and DSP spatial tests was applied in the present study to a sample of 105 undergraduates. The correlation matrix is analysed through a Schmid–Leiman hierarchical factor analysis, resulting in a powerful higher-order factor identified with Gv. First-order fac- tors are shown as psychologically meaningless. Moreover, a confirmatory factor analysis demonstrates that a single endogenous factor, identified with Gv, predicts fairly well all the spatial markers. The correlation between the subjects’ Gv factor scores and their scores in the Cattell’s Culture Fair test shows a value of +0.6. Therefore, the study suggests that there is no clear separation among markers of some core spatial factors and that Gv strongly correlates with fluid ability (Gf). # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: General visualization; Visualization; Spatial relations; Dynamic spatial performance; Fluid reasoning; Cattell’s Culture Fair test; Schmid–Leiman hierarchical factor analysis 0191-8869/02/$ - see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0191-8869(01)00095-2 Personality and Individual Differences 32 (2001) 903–912 www.elsevier.com/locate/paid * Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-397-4141; fax: +34-91-397-5215. E-mail address: roberto.colom@uam.es (R. Colom).