The independent question reads: "A researcher finds a +0.38 correlation between a test of verbal intelligence and a test of spatial intelligence. Speculating about a common factor, “g,” the researcher concludes that:"
A) Performance on both tests is partly determined by "g"
B) The two tests measure different things, which does not include a g component.
C) Both tests are excellent measures of g
D) g is a statistical artifact with no real-world validity.

The answer is A and I don't understand why. If the question says that there is a correlation between the two tests doesn't that mean it only looked at the relationship between the two tests and not any other factors? I was thinking that it meant that a scores on one test are correlated with scores on the other test (ex. you score high on verbal intelligence test you are likely to score high on spatial intelligence test as well.)

I understand that the question said there could be a common factor between them but I thought because the correlation analysis wasn't performed between the tests and the factor g specifically, I couldn't draw correlational relationships between the tests and factor g. I thought the answer was B.

An explanation would be greatly appreciated :)

Thanks in advance,
Lauren