ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the origins and development of the concept of aptitude complexes. Initial empirical success in demonstrating interactions between aptitude complexes and instructional complexes by Richard E. Snow and his students is followed by an inductive approach to finding broader trait complexes. Snow's approach to aptitude complexes also differed from Cattell's integrated "investment hypothesis"—which suggested how abilities, personality, and motivational traits relate to intellectual and achievement outcomes. The clerical–conventional trait complex includes conventional interests and similar personality traits, such as conscientiousness, traditionalism, and control. The science-math trait complex and the intellectual-cultural trait complex overlap in that both are associated with investigative interests. The intellectual-cultural trait complex, although also associated with investigative interests, is associated with the educational and experiential aspects of intelligence, the artistic interest theme, and the personality traits of openness to experience, absorption, and a measure called typical intellectual engagement (TIE)—which is associated with openness.
