Evaluation of a model of attention with confirmatory factor analysis.
Structural equation modeling (specifically, analysis of moment structures; J. L. Arbuckle, 1996) was used to evaluate the goodness of fit of a model of components of attention (A. F. Mirsky, B. J. Anthony, C. C. Duncan, M. B. Aheam, & S. G. Kellam, 1991) to neuropsychological test data from 2 samples. One sample consisted of psychiatrically normal persons with and without sleep-disordered breathing, and the other sample consisted of the adults studied by A. F. Mirsky et al. (1991), who gave rise to this model. That sample included psychiatric patients as well as normals. An exploratory data reduction procedure, principal-components analysis, suggested that attention might be conceptualized as composed of 4 independent elements or components: focus-execute, sustain, shift, and encode. Neither the proposed orthogonal model nor a model permitting correlated factors adequately fit either data set, suggesting that these 4 attention constructs are as yet not clearly validated in the measures used to assess them.
Strauss
Milton E
ME
Case Western Reserve U.
Thompson
Paul
P
Adams
Nancy L
NL
Redline
Susan
S
Burant
Christopher
C
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012913:Snoring / Q000523:psychology