Johnson O'Connor - Later Research

Later Research

O'Connor sought to expand his efforts in researching human aptitudes and in 1930 he founded the Human Engineering Laboratory at Stevens Institute of Technology This organization evolved into the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation, a non-profit organization with branches in several major U.S. cities.

In addition to gathering data on skills specific to various vocations, O’Connor also gathered various general data on his subjects. After establishing the link between specific aptitudes and performance in certain positions, O’Connor decided to take a second look at his data and see if there were any aptitudes which were more important than others in determining general success and advancement. It was during the course of this testing that O’Connor stumbled upon an unexpected discovery: A person’s vocabulary level was the best single measure for predicting occupational success in every area. Furthermore, vocabulary is not innate, and can be acquired by everybody. Because acquisition of vocabulary was not, in O'Connor's view, determined by innate aptitudes, it became a major focus of his later writings. O'Connor considered vocabulary augmentation a major key to unlocking human potential. His later research included an effort to catalogue the most important words for English-speaking people to know and to order these words by difficulty. O’Connor used his findings to improve vocabulary in American students. By first isolating a student’s vocabulary level through a carefully researched multiple choice diagnostic test, O' Connor believed that students could enter a vocabulary program of study that matches their skill level. It is at this level, and just beyond, where learning is most efficient. Some educators have attempted to create a vocabulary-building curriculum based on O'Connor's research, such efforts include WordSmart's vocabulary acquisition software. O'Connor himself dedicated several books to the topic of learning vocabulary including: "The Johnson O'Connor English Vocabulary Builder" and "The Johnson O'Connor Science Vocabulary Builder" as well as the "Ginn Vocabulary Building Program" which he co-authored.

The final years of O'Connor's life were spent researching, lecturing, and writing about human aptitudes and ways for people to maximize their mental potential. On these subjects he authored numerous books, including "Structural Visualization", "The Unique Individual", and "Psychometrics." He also devoted much of his later research to studying vocabulary and the processes by which people acquired word knowledge. O'Connor died in Mexico City, D.F., in July 1973 and is buried beside his wife, the architect Eleanor Manning O'Connor, in Newport Beach, California. He was survived by his engineer son, Chadwell O'Connor, an Academy Award winner who designed the O'Connor Fluid-Head camera tripod.