Confirmatory factor analysis of the cognitive flexibility scale

Abstract

The goal of the current research is to identify the confirmatory factor analysis of the cognitive flexibility scale on university students. To achieve the research goal, the researcher adopted the cognitive flexibility scale of (Al-Samawi, 2017), which adopted the definition of Spiro and others (1991, Spiro), as the scale consisted of (45) distributed items. On three areas of cognitive flexibility, namely (cognitive diversity, cognitive novelty, and cognitive formation), the scale was applied to a sample of students at the University of Baghdad, numbering (600) male and female students. The current research has concluded, through confirmatory factor analysis, that most of the indicators indicate the presence of Identical to the current model, however, some other fit indicators were found to fill the weakness in the chi-square indicator, as its statistical significance is affected by the sample size, as any slight difference between the variance and covariance matrix of the hypothesized model and the sample matrix is statistically significant when the sample size is expanded. It appeared that most of the fit indicators indicate Good conformity to the model. It was mentioned that the model’s general conformity based on the conformity indicators does not indicate at all that the model is completely devoid of any defect in the objective conformity of some of the model’s parameters. Therefore, the results of the general conformity indicators of the model must be enhanced by a detailed local examination by examining the residuals (error). The standard) and the coefficient of determination and the reliability coefficient, and the result of the research is that the conformity indicators indicate the availability of a good overall fit for the confirmatory factor model measuring cognitive flexibility, and it can therefore be adopted .
In light of the research results, the researcher developed a set of recommendations and proposals .