Aptitude-trait complexes

(from the chapter) From an individual-differences perspective in psychology, a complex represents some combination of traits (i.e., relative stable individual characteristics) that share common variance. That is, a complex would represent two or more characteristics of individuals that are found to “go together” in the sense that they are positively correlated with one another. The term “aptitude complex” was developed by Snow (1963) in the context of a hypothesis that specific combinations of abilities might be “particularly appropriate or inappropriate for efficient learning.”