IS ERROR PRONENESS SPECIFIC TO ERRORS? PREDICTIVE VALIDITY OF THE COGNITIVE FAILURES QUESTIONNAIRE

Over two decades ago, the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) was introduced as a tool for obtaining information concerning the frequency of everyday errors. Since then errors have been related to the construct of error proneness, which is supposed to be a steady trait in any individual. The CFQ has been adapted for populations other than English speakers and used in a great variety of experimental and applied settings. The aim of this paper is twofold: 1) to further address the factorial structure of the CFQ, and 2) to verify the predictive validity of the error proneness construct in a simulated driving task. Results of the first study showed that seven factors might underlie the CFQ structure: Action monitoring and control, Memory for names, Decision, Mind-wandering, Over-reliance on memory, Blunders, Absent-mindedness. However, we show that the CFQ total score may be preferred. Furthermore, the experimental study here reported showed that the CFQ total score is a weak predictor of driving performance and only predicts the time spent out-of-path, suggesting that error proneness, as measured by this questionnaire, is mainly linked to constructs such as absent mindedness or distractibility rather than a dispositional tendency to make errors