John Bissell Carroll (June 5, 1916 – July 1, 2003) was an American psychologist known for his contributions to

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...

and

psychometrics Psychometrics is a field of study within psychology concerned with the theory and technique of measurement. Psychometrics generally refers to specialized fields within psychology and education devoted to testing, measurement, assessment, and ...

.Stansfield, Charles W. “Carroll, John Bissell.” ''Concise Encyclopedia of Educational Linguistics''. Ed. B. Spolsky. Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier, 1999.

Early years

Carroll was born in Hartford, Connecticut. Early in his life, Carroll became interested in music and language. His interest in language was further sparked by becoming friends with

Benjamin Lee Whorf Benjamin Lee Whorf (; April 24, 1897 – July 26, 1941) was an American linguist and fire prevention engineer. He is known for " Sapir–Whorf hypothesis," the idea that differences between the structures of different languages shape how the ...

at the age of thirteen and discussing Whorf's ideas about a close connection between culture and language. Carroll also helped to edit and publish Whorf's ''Language, Thought and Reality'' in 1956.

Education

Carroll studied at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

, majoring in Classics and graduating summa cum laude in 1937. He attended the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

to earn a doctoral degree in Psychology. At the University of Minnesota, Carroll began studying under

B. F. Skinner Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and Social philosophy, social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his ret ...

, but soon discovered that he was more interested in working with large numbers of subjects rather than Skinner's individual subjects approach. Skinner directed Carroll to L. L. Thurstone at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

, where he was able to pursue his interest in

. During this time, he focused his studies on verbal aptitude and completed his dissertation, “A Factor Analysis of Verbal Abilities”, in 1941.

Career

After finishing his education, Carroll's first position was at Mount Holyoke College (1940–42). Mary Searle, who received her B.A. in psychology from Mount Holyoke in 1941, married Carroll after graduation. After Mount Holyoke, Carroll taught at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

(1942–43), the

(1943–44), Harvard Graduate School of Education, (''Roy E. Larsen Professor of Education'', 1949–67) and the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

, (William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Psychology 1974–82, Director of L. L. Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory, 1974–79). He was also a psychologist with the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, (1944–46), the Department of the Army, (1946–49) and the

Educational Testing Service Educational Testing Service (ETS), founded in 1947, is the world's largest private nonprofit educational testing and assessment organization. It is headquartered in Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, Lawrence Township, New Jersey, b ...

(1967–74).

Contributions

One of Carroll's early projects in the 1950s involved developing a test of language aptitude (the Modern Language Aptitude Test (1953–58), or MLAT). The project grew out of the US Army's requests for a way to identify people who could easily learn foreign languages for training purposes. Carroll received a grant for foreign language learning aptitude research through the

Carnegie Corporation The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...

and worked with Stanley Sapon and the US Army-Air Force to develop the MLAT. The MLAT was first published in 1959 by The Psychological Corporation and was still sometimes used as of 2004.Stansfield, Charles W. and Daniel J. Reed. The Story Behind the Modern Language Aptitude Test: An Interview With John B. Carroll (1916-2003). ''Language Assessment Quarterly'' 1.1 (2004): 43-56. In his paper "Fundamental considerations in testing for English language proficiency of foreign students", published in 1961, Carroll challenged the language testing field's reliance on discrete-point testing. This is an analytical approach to language testing in which each test question is meant to measure one distinct content point. Carroll supported using an integrative testing design, in which each question requires the test-taker to use more than one skill or piece of knowledge at a time and may be a more natural representation of the test-taker's knowledge of the language. Carroll's paper influenced the design of the

Test of English as a Foreign Language Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL ) is a standardized test to measure the English language ability of non-native speakers wishing to enroll in English-speaking universities. The test is accepted by more than 11,000 universities a ...

, or

TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL ) is a standardized test to measure the English language ability of non-native speakers wishing to enroll in English-speaking universities. The test is accepted by more than 11,000 universities a ...

, which combined both discrete-point and integrative methods for the assessment. In 1962, Carroll presented his Model of School Learning. In the model, Carroll defined a hypothetical framework used to predict achievement in schools. The framework was made up of two kinds of variables: individual differences and instructional variables. Individual differences related to general intelligence, aptitudes and motivation while instructional variables related to instructional quality and duration. Carroll's 800-page work, '' Human Cognitive Abilities: A Survey of Factor-Analytic Studies'', was published in 1993. In the book, Carroll proposed his psychological theory about three different levels of cognition, the

Three Stratum Theory The three-stratum theory is a theory of cognitive ability proposed by the American psychologist John Carroll in 1993.J. B. Carroll (1997), "The three-stratum theory of cognitive abilities" in D. P. Flanagan, J. L. Genshaft et al., ''Contemporary i ...

. In 1994, he was one of 52 signatories on ''

Mainstream Science on Intelligence "Mainstream Science on Intelligence" was a public statement issued by a group of researchers of topics associated with intelligence testing. It was published originally in ''The Wall Street Journal'' on December 13, 1994, as a response to criticis ...

'', a public statement written by

Linda Gottfredson Linda Susanne Gottfredson (née Howarth; born 1947) is an American psychologist and writer. She is professor emeritus of educational psychology at the University of Delaware and co-director of the Delaware-Johns Hopkins Project for the Study of I ...

and published in the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' as a response to what the authors viewed as inaccurate and misleading reports made by the media regarding academic consensus on the results of intelligence research in the wake of the appearance of ''

The Bell Curve ''The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life'' is a 1994 book by psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and political scientist Charles Murray, in which the authors argue that human intelligence is substantially influenced by ...

'' earlier the same year.Gottfredson, Linda (December 13, 1994).

. ''

'', p A18.

Selected publications

Selected from over 400 books and articles. *Carroll, J B 1956 ''Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf'' M.I.T. Press, Boston. *Carroll, J B 1993 '' Human Cognitive Abilities: A survey of factor-analytic studies'' Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. *Carroll, J B, Davies, P, & Richman, B 1971 ''The American Heritage Word Frequency Book''. Houghton Mifflin, New York. *Carroll, J B, Sapon, S M 1959 ''Modern Language Aptitude Test'' The Psychological Corporation, San Antonio, Texas. *Carroll, J B, 1961 "Fundamental considerations in testing for English language proficiency of foreign students". In Testing Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC. Reprinted in Allen, H B & Campbell R N 1972 ''Teaching English as a Second Language: A Book of Readings'' McGraw Hill, New York. * “John B. Carroll.” ''Human Intelligence''. 2003. Indiana University. 27 June 2006

References

External links

Carroll's Model for School Learning (Wayback Machine)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carroll, John Bissell 1916 births 2003 deaths University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni Wesleyan University alumni American cognitive scientists American educational psychologists Mount Holyoke College faculty Intelligence researchers Indiana University faculty University of Chicago faculty Harvard Graduate School of Education faculty University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty People from Hartford, Connecticut Aptitude Bilingualism and second-language acquisition researchers Developmental psycholinguists United States Navy personnel of World War II