Conceptualizing Correlated Residuals as Item-Level Method Effects in Confirmatory Factor Analysis.

Conceptualizing two-variable disturbances preventing good model fit in confirmatory factor analysis as item-level method effects instead of correlated residuals avoids violating the principle that residual variation is unique for each item. The possibility of representing such a disturbance by a method factor of a bifactor measurement model was investigated with respect to model identification. It turned out that a suitable way of realizing the method factor is its integration into a fixed-links, parallel-measurement or tau-equivalent measurement submodel that is part of the bifactor model.

On Modeling Missing Data in Structural Investigations Based on Tetrachoric Correlations With Free and Fixed Factor Loadings.

In modeling missing data, the missing data latent variable of the confirmatory factor model accounts for systematic variation associated with missing data so that replacement of what is missing is not required. This study aimed at extending the modeling missing data approach to tetrachoric correlations as input and at exploring the consequences of switching between models with free and fixed factor loadings. In a simulation study, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) models with and without a missing data latent variable were used for investigating the structure of data with and without missing data.

Neural correlates of intelligence: ERP Components of temporary storage predict fluid intelligence over and above those of executive functions.

Previous research has revealed that individuals with different levels of intelligence exhibit distinct patterns of event-related potentials (ERPs) related to executive functions and temporary storage. However, there is a lack of studies investigating the relative contributions of these ERPs in predicting individual differences in fluid intelligence. This study aims to examine the extent to which ERPs associated with executive functions and temporary storage can predict individual differences in fluid intelligence.

The dual mechanisms of cognitive control and their relation to reasoning and the item-position effect.

Braver's (2012) dual mechanisms of cognitive control differentiate between proactive control (PMC; i.e. early selection and maintenance of goal-relevant information) and reactive control (RMC; i.

How Executive Processes Explain the Overlap between Working Memory Capacity and Fluid Intelligence: A Test of Process Overlap Theory.

Working memory capacity (WMC) and fluid intelligence (Gf) are highly correlated, but what accounts for this relationship remains elusive. Process-overlap theory (POT) proposes that the positive manifold is mainly caused by the overlap of domain-general executive processes which are involved in a battery of mental tests. Thus, executive processes are proposed to explain the relationship between WMC and Gf.

On Modeling Missing Data of an Incomplete Design in the CFA Framework.

The paper reports an investigation on whether valid results can be achieved in analyzing the structure of datasets although a large percentage of data is missing without replacement. Two types of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) models were employed for this purpose: the missing data CFA model with an additional latent variable for representing the missing data and the semi-hierarchical CFA model that also includes the additional latent variable and reflects the hierarchical structure assumed to underlie the data. Whereas, the missing data CFA model assumes that the model is equally valid for all participants, the semi-hierarchical CFA model is implicitly specified differently for subgroups of participants with and without omissions.

An Investigation on How Inhibition in Cognitive Processing Contributes to Fluid Reasoning.

This article reports an investigation of how inhibition contributes to fluid reasoning when it is decomposed into the reasoning ability, item-position, and speed components to control for possible method effects. Working memory was also taken into consideration. A sample of 223 university students completed a fluid reasoning scale, two tasks tapping prepotent response inhibition, and two working memory tasks.

Higher-order processing and change-to-automaticity as explanations of the item-position effect in reasoning tests.

Higher-order processing and learning are two alternative explanations of the item-position effect. Whereas higher-order processing as explanation emphasizes the recruitment of executive processes, learning as explanation highlights the improvement in performance due to repetition and is specified as change-to-automaticity. In a sample of 287 participants the item-position effect was captured by means of Advanced Progressive Matrices.

Scaling the Variance of a Latent Variable While Assuring Constancy of the Model.

This paper investigates how the major outcome of a confirmatory factor investigation is preserved when scaling the variance of a latent variable by the various scaling methods. A constancy framework, based upon the underlying factor analysis formula that enables scaling by modifying components through scalar multiplication, is described; a proof is included to demonstrate the constancy property of the framework. It provides the basis for a scaling method that enables the comparison of the contribution of different latent variables of the same confirmatory factor model to observed scores, as for example, the contributions of trait and method latent variables.

Executive Control in Learning: Evidence for the Dissociation of Rule Learning and Associative Learning.

The dual-process account and the propositional account of learning hold opposite views regarding the recruitment of higher-level processes in rule learning and associative learning. Taking an individual differences perspective, the current study focused on the relationship between rule learning and associative learning and investigated to what extent executive control accounts for rule learning and associative learning. Two studies were conducted.

Speed Effect Analysis Using the CFA Framework.

The paper outlines a method for investigating the speed effect due to a time limit in testing. It is assumed that the time limit enables latent processing speed to influence responses by causing omissions in the case of insufficient speed. Because of processing speed as additional latent source, the customary confirmatory factor model is enlarged by a second latent variable representing latent processing speed.

Does the Effect of a Time Limit for Testing Impair Structural Investigations by Means of Confirmatory Factor Models?

The article reports three simulation studies conducted to find out whether the effect of a time limit for testing impairs model fit in investigations of structural validity, whether the representation of the assumed source of the effect prevents impairment of model fit and whether it is possible to identify and discriminate this method effect from another method effect. Omissions due to the time limit for testing were not considered as missing data but as information on the participants' processing speed. In simulated data the presence of a time-limit effect impaired comparative fit index and nonnormed fit index whereas normed chi-square, root mean square error of approximation, and standardized root mean square residual indicated good model fit.

Is the Factor Observed in Investigations on the Item-Position Effect Actually the Difficulty Factor?

In confirmatory factor analysis quite similar models of measurement serve the detection of the difficulty factor and the factor due to the item-position effect. The item-position effect refers to the increasing dependency among the responses to successively presented items of a test whereas the difficulty factor is ascribed to the wide range of item difficulties. The similarity of the models of measurement hampers the dissociation of these factors.

Do Adaptive Representations of the Item-Position Effect in APM Improve Model Fit? A Simulation Study.

The item-position effect describes how an item's position within a test, that is, the number of previous completed items, affects the response to this item. Previously, this effect was represented by constraints reflecting simple courses, for example, a linear increase. Due to the inflexibility of these representations our aim was to examine whether adapted representations are more appropriate than the existing ones.

On the relationship between executive functions of working memory and components derived from fluid intelligence measures.

The aim of the current study is to provide new insights into the relationship between executive functions and intelligence measures in considering the item-position effect observed in intelligence items. Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM) and Horn's LPS reasoning test were used to assess fluid intelligence which served as criterion in investigating the relationship between intelligence and executive functions. A battery of six experimental tasks measured the updating, shifting, and inhibition processes of executive functions.

Models for the Detection of Deviations from the Expected Processing Strategy in Completing the Items of Cognitive Measures.

This paper presents confirmatory factor models with fixed factor loadings that enable the identification of deviations from the expected processing strategy. The instructions usually define the expected processing strategy to a considerable degree. Simplification is a deviation from instructions that is likely to occur in complex cognitive measures.

The Prediction of Students' Academic Performance With Fluid Intelligence in Giving Special Consideration to the Contribution of Learning.

The present study provides a new account of how fluid intelligence influences academic performance. In this account a complex learning component of fluid intelligence tests is proposed to play a major role in predicting academic performance. A sample of 2, 277 secondary school students completed two reasoning tests that were assumed to represent fluid intelligence and standardized math and verbal tests assessing academic performance.

The contribution of temporary storage and executive processes to category learning.

Three distinctly different working memory processes, temporary storage, mental shifting and inhibition, were proposed to account for individual differences in category learning. A sample of 213 participants completed a classic category learning task and two working memory tasks that were experimentally manipulated for tapping specific working memory processes. Fixed-links models were used to decompose data of the category learning task into two independent components representing basic performance and improvement in performance in category learning.

A fixed-links modeling approach to assess individual differences in the attentional blink: Analysis of behavioral and psychophysiological data.

The attentional blink (AB) is a fundamental limitation of the ability to select relevant information from irrelevant information. It can be observed with the detection rate in an AB task as well as with the corresponding P300 amplitude of the event-related potential. In previous research, however, correlations between these two levels of observation were weak and rather inconsistent.

Elucidating the functional relationship between working memory capacity and psychometric intelligence: a fixed-links modeling approach for experimental repeated-measures designs.

Numerous studies reported a strong link between working memory capacity (WMC) and fluid intelligence (Gf), although views differ in respect to how close these two constructs are related to each other. In the present study, we used a WMC task with five levels of task demands to assess the relationship between WMC and Gf by means of a new methodological approach referred to as fixed-links modeling. Fixed-links models belong to the family of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and are of particular interest for experimental, repeated-measures designs.

Process-based account for the effects of perceptual attention and executive attention on fluid intelligence: an integrative approach.

Perceptual attention and executive attention represent two higher-order types of attention and associate with distinctly different ways of information processing. It is hypothesized that these two types of attention implicate different cognitive processes, which are assumed to account for the differential effects of perceptual attention and executive attention on fluid intelligence. Specifically, an encoding process is assumed to be crucial in completing the tasks of perceptual attention while two executive processes, updating and shifting, are stimulated in completing the tasks of executive attention.

Scaling Variances of Latent Variables by Standardizing Loadings: Applications to Working Memory and the Position Effect.

The standardization of loadings gives a metric to the corresponding latent variable and thus scales the variance of this latent variable. By assigning an appropriately estimated weight to all the loadings on the same latent variable it can be achieved that the average squared loading is 1 as the result of standardization. As a consequence, there is comparability of the variances of the latent variables of a confirmatory factor model.

Fixed-links models for investigating experimental effects combined with processing strategies in repeated measures designs: a cognitive task as example.

Fixed-links models enable the investigation of experimental effects in combination with processing strategies in the framework of repeated measures designs. The consideration of different processing strategies is reasonable whenever the task requirements can be met in different ways. Effects due to specific processing strategies become obvious in comparing the models representing these processing strategies and also by investigating the variances of the corresponding latent variables.