Reliability and validity of the Divided Attention Questionnaire

This study investigated the relations of the Divided Attention Questionnaire (DAQ) developed by Tun and Wingfield (1995) to age, and to measures of divided attention performance. With increased age activities assumed to require divided attention were rated as more difficult, were perceived as becoming more difficult over time, and were performed less frequently. However, no significant relations were found between DAQ ratings and performance on divided attention tasks administered in the laboratory. This suggests that the DAQ may not be a valid measure of divided attention ability as that construct is measured with laboratory tasks. Possible explanations for the lack of relations between the DAQ ratings and measures of divided attention performance are discussed.