6533b861fe1ef96bd12c4470

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Self-Reported Cognitive Failures

subject

description

Investigated measurement models of self-report measures of cognitive failures in 5 studies (total of 3,122 participants aged 14-70). The Cognitive Failure Questionnaire (CFQ) is a well-known and frequently used self-report measure of cognitive lapses and slips (e.g., throwing away the candy bar and keeping the wrapper). Measurement models of individual differences in cognitive failures have failed to produce consistent results so far. Therefore, in the present studies, the CFQ is compared to measures of competing measurement models: a measure of identical measurement intention (Short Inventory of Minor Lapses, SIML), a neuroticism test, a questionnaire on functional and dysfunctional self-consciousness, a self-report measure on cognitive interference, and an indicator of complaints about memory. Analyses reveal a measurement model distinguishing 3 factors of self-reported cognitive failures labeled clumsiness, retrieval, and intention forgotten. Moreover, measures of minor lapses, neuroticism, functional and dysfunctional self-consciousness, cognitive interference, and memory complaints provide evidence across several studies for the interpretation of self-reported cognitive failures as an aspect of neuroticism that primarily reflects general subjective complaints about cognition. The authors conclude that self-report measures about cognition ought to be interpreted as expressing worries about one's cognition rather than measuring cognitive abilities themselves.