A confirmatory factor analytic study of time-sharing performance and cognitive abilities

doi:10.1016/0160-2896(90)90013-J

Intelligence

Volume 14, Issue 1, January–March 1990, Pages 43-59

https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-2896(90)90013-J Get rights and content

Abstract

Previous failures to identify a general time-sharing (TS) ability from factor analyses of multiple task performance have been attributed in part to the uninformed use of exploratory procedures, which may obscure, rather than confirm, the presence of a TS factor. In the present study, 81 male subjects performed four information-processing tasks and six dual task combinations, and completed a battery of psychometric ability tests selected to identify three factors from the Cattell-Horn model (gf,gc, and gs). Confirmatory maximum likelihood factor analyses of the information-processing task variables were not supportive of a general TS factor. However, similar to Jennings and Chiles' (1977) results, the analyses did identify a TS factor specific to combinations that included a visual monitoring task. The TS factor was unrelated to the psychometric ability factors. Future investigations of TS performance should focus on the identification of process-specific TS abilities and possible relationships among them.

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^☆: The research reported in this paper was conducted while the author was a National Research Council Senior Research Associate at the Workload and Ergonomics Branch of the Harry G. Armstrong Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Additional support was provided by a contract through the Southeastern Center for Electrical Engineering Education (Contract No. F33615-85-D-0514).

^∗: I thank Merry Roe for assisting with the data collection, and F. Thomas Eggemeier, William Perez, Gary B. Reid, Clark A. Shingledecker, Donald A. Topmiller, and Glenn F. Wilson for their interest and support. Finally, I am especially grateful to Phillip L. Ackerman and Christopher Hertzog for their very helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

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A confirmatory factor analytic study of time-sharing performance and cognitive abilities☆

Abstract

Intelligence

Intelligence

Intelligence

Intelligence

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Psychological Bulletin

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Methodology and the use of dual and complex-task paradigms in human factors research

The effect of sampling error on convergence, improper solutions, and goodness-of-fit indices for maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analysis

Psychometrika

A 3-minute reasoning test based on grammatical transformation

Psychonomic Science

Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures

Psychological Bulletin

Nonconvergence, improper solutions, and starting values in LISREL maximum likelihood estimation

Psychometrika

Time-sharing revisited: Test of a componential model for the assessment of individual differences

Ergonomics

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Residual attention as a predictor of flight performance

Human Factors

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Human Factors

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Offending estimates in covariance structure analysis: Comments on the causes and solutions to Heywood cases

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Manual for kit of factor-referenced cognitive tests

The prediction of total task performance from prior practice on task components

Human Factors

An investigation of time-sharing as a general ability

Studies of component-total task relations: Order of components, total task practice, and total task predictability

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