Empirical evaluation of the factorial structure of attention in adolescent psychiatric patients

Adolescent psychiatric inpatients (N = 278) were examined with a structured battery of measures of attentional functioning. The factorial structure of the attentional performance was then examined through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Two conceptually related models of attentional functioning were compared to null and unifactorial comparison models. One of the conceptual models, previously described in a series of studies by Mirsky, separates attentional functions into four factors and the other conceptual model, developed by the present authors, collapses two of Mirsky's factors into one. Both of the substantive models fit the data with the four-factor model failing to improve substantially on the simpler three-factor model. These data provide support for the validity of the Mirsky model of attention and suggest that these factors merit further research to validate the brain localization hypotheses that underlie them.