1. | Rey-Mermet, Alodie; Singmann, Henrik; Oberauer, Klaus: Neither Measurement Error nor Speed-Accuracy Trade-Offs Explain the Difficulty of Establishing Attentional Control as a Psychometric Construct: Evidence from a Latent-Variable Analysis Using Diffusion Modeling. In: Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, Forthcoming. @article{rey-mermetNeitherMeasurementErrorinpress,
title = {Neither Measurement Error nor Speed-Accuracy Trade-Offs Explain the Difficulty of Establishing Attentional Control as a Psychometric Construct: Evidence from a Latent-Variable Analysis Using Diffusion Modeling},
author = {Alodie Rey-Mermet and Henrik Singmann and Klaus Oberauer},
url = {https://osf.io/3h26y_v2/download/, preprint},
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/3h26y_v2},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-04-02},
urldate = {2026-04-02},
journal = {Psychonomic Bulletin & Review},
abstract = {Attentional control refers to the ability to maintain and implement a goal and goal-relevant information when facing distraction. So far, previous research has failed to substantiate strong evidence for a psychometric construct of attentional control. This could result from two methodological shortcomings: (a) the neglect of individual differences in speed-accuracy trade-offs when only speed or accuracy is used as dependent variable, and (b) the difficulty of isolating attentional control from measurement error. To overcome both issues, we combined hierarchical-Bayesian Wiener diffusion modeling with structural equation modeling. We re-analyzed six datasets, which included data from three to eight attentional-control tasks, and data from young and older adults. Overall, the results showed that measures of attentional control failed to correlate with each other and failed to load on a latent variable. Therefore, limiting the impact of differences in speed-accuracy trade-offs and of measurement error does not solve the difficulty of establishing attentional control as a psychometric construct. These findings strengthen the case against a psychometric construct of attentional control.},
keywords = {Diffusion model, executive functions, hierarchical-Bayesian modeling, individual differences},
pubstate = {forthcoming},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Attentional control refers to the ability to maintain and implement a goal and goal-relevant information when facing distraction. So far, previous research has failed to substantiate strong evidence for a psychometric construct of attentional control. This could result from two methodological shortcomings: (a) the neglect of individual differences in speed-accuracy trade-offs when only speed or accuracy is used as dependent variable, and (b) the difficulty of isolating attentional control from measurement error. To overcome both issues, we combined hierarchical-Bayesian Wiener diffusion modeling with structural equation modeling. We re-analyzed six datasets, which included data from three to eight attentional-control tasks, and data from young and older adults. Overall, the results showed that measures of attentional control failed to correlate with each other and failed to load on a latent variable. Therefore, limiting the impact of differences in speed-accuracy trade-offs and of measurement error does not solve the difficulty of establishing attentional control as a psychometric construct. These findings strengthen the case against a psychometric construct of attentional control. |