The importance of identifying the dimensionality of constructs employed in simulation and training for AI

Michael D Coovert and Winston Bennett

The Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation, 2022, vol. 19, issue 2, 229-236

Abstract: Advances at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and education and training are occurring at an ever-increasing pace. On the education and training side, psychological and performance constructs play a central role in both theory and application. It is essential, therefore, to accurately determine the dimensionality of a construct, as it is often employed during both the assessment and development of theory, and its practical application. Traditionally, both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses have been employed to establish the dimensionality of data. Due in part to inconsistent findings, methodologists recently resurrected the bifactor approach for establishing the dimensionality of data. The bifactor model is pitted against traditional data structures, and the one with the best overall fit (according to chi-square, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), comparative fit index (CFI), Tucker–Lewis index (TLI), and standardized root mean square residual (SRMR)) is preferred. If the bifactor structure is preferred by that test, it can be further examined via a suite of emerging coefficients (e.g., omega, omega hierarchical, omega subscale, H , explained common variance, and percent uncontaminated correlations), each of which is computed from standardized factor loadings. To examine the utility of these new statistical tools in an education and training context, we analyze data where the construct of interest is trust. We chose trust as it is central, among other things, to understanding human reliance upon and utilization of AI systems. We utilized the above statistical approach and determined the two-factor structure of widely employed trust scale is better represented by one general factor. Findings like this hold substantial implications for theory development and testing, prediction as in structural equation modeling (SEM) models, as well as the utilization of scales and their role in education, training, and AI systems. We encourage other researchers to employ the statistical measures described here to critically examine the construct measures used in their work if those measures are thought to be multidimensional. Only through the appropriate utilization of constructs, defined in part by their dimensionality, are we to advance the intersection of AI and simulation and training.

Keywords: Construct; factor analysis; bifactor model; teams (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15485129211036936 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:joudef:v:19:y:2022:i:2:p:229-236

DOI: 10.1177/15485129211036936

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in The Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().