title: COMMENTARY ON THE CHANGING NATURE OF EXECUTIVE CONTROL IN PRESCHOOL.
abstract: In this commentary, I provide a critical evaluation of Espy and colleagues' proposal to use a bifactor modeling approach to characterize children's performance on executive control tasks. I draw attention to an old idea regarding treating items as causal or effect indicators of their latent constructs. I remind readers that factor analytic approaches, including the bifactor model that is proposed here, assume that executive control tasks are effect indicators of the latent construct of executive control. I suggest that executive control tasks may be better conceptualized as causal indicators. I further suggest that these different modeling approaches will result in markedly different conclusions about the nature of executive control-including predictors and outcomes of executive control that were the focus of this monograph.
authors.forename: Michael T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Willoughby
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D056344:Executive Function; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012574:Schools; D014481:United States