2015/11/16 by Paul A. Jewsbury, Stephen C. Bowden, Milton E. Strauss · 115 citations
Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder #Cognition #Cognitive Abilities and Testing #Cognitive psychology #Computer science #Confirmatory factor analysis #Construct (python library) #Executive functions #Function (biology) #Machine learning #Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies #Neuropsychology #Neuroscience #Psychology #Structural equation modeling
paper · doi:10.1037/xge0000119
published in Journal of Experimental Psychology General 145(2), 220-245 (American Psychological Association)
openalex publication_date 2015/11/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/26
Executive function is an important concept in neuropsychological and cognitive research, and is often viewed as central to effective clinical assessment of cognition. However, the construct validity of executive function tests is controversial. The switching, inhibition, and updating model is the most empirically supported and replicated factor model of executive function (Miyake et al., 2000). To evaluate the relation between executive function constructs and nonexplicitly executive cognitive constructs, we used confirmatory factor reanalysis guided by the comprehensive Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model of cognitive abilities. Data from 7 of the best studies supporting the executive function model were reanalyzed, contrasting executive function models and CHC models. Where possible, we examined the effect of specifying executive function factors in addition to the CHC factors. The results suggested that little evidence is available to support updating as a separate factor from general memory factors; that inhibition does not separate from general speed; and that switching is supported as a narrow factor under general speed, but with a more restricted definition than some clinicians and researchers have conceptualized. The replicated executive function factor structure was integrated with the larger body of research on individual difference in cognition, as represented by the CHC model.