Contemporary psychology, Vol. 15 No. 2, 2012.
Original scientific paper
Executive function of shifting: Factorial structure and relations to personality and intelligence domains
Danka Purić
orcid.org/0000-0001-5126-3781
; Department of Psychology University of Belgrade
Maša Pavlović
; Department of Psychology University of Belgrade
Abstract
This study explores the executive function of shifting and its relation to intelligence
and personality constructs. We administered four different cognitive tasks that
are presumed to be markers of shifting. The exploratory factor analysis yielded a one
factor solution underlying these tasks. Significant correlations between this factor and
measures of intelligence were found. In addition, the shifting factor showed a significant
relation to neuroticism trait and the direction of this relation implied that greater
neuroticism corresponded to greater shifting costs. Our findings are in contrast with
the early conceptions of executive functions as completely unrelated to intelligence
and also some contemporary research showing that shifting factor is unrelated to intelligence
measures, but support the findings that shifting ability is correlated with Gf.
More importantly results of our study shed new light on the nature of the trait neuroticism,
implying that executive functions might play a significant role in determining
people’s general emotional vulnerability.
Keywords
executive functions; shifting; intelligence; neuroticism
Hrčak ID:
111596
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2012.
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