An Item-Level Evaluation of the Attentional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) Using a Sample of Experienced Cyclists

Abstract

Effective attentional control is crucial for safe urban cycling. The Attentional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) assesses orientation of attention and its underpinning processes. This study contributes to the ASQ literature by detecting intraindividual and interindividual item response patterns in a group of cyclists to derive a parsimonious context-specific version of the ASQ. We performed a multidimensional item response theory analysis of Internal and External Distraction Control scales of the ASQ using data from experienced road cyclists, fitting both constrained and unconstrained graded response models to the data; we also examined person fit. Five of the original 17 items were discarded due to low factor coefficients and item discrimination parameters. The remaining items exhibited good psychometric properties including high discrimination parameters and category utilization. Only two and five people exhibited person misfit for Internal and External Distraction Control scales, respectively. This abbreviated ASQ may be appropriate for assessing cyclists’ attentional control.