 Psychological construct

A psychological construct is a theoretically specified attribute or process used to explain behavior and experience. Working memory, for example, is not directly observed as a number on an instrument; researchers infer aspects of it from performance under stated tasks. A psychological construct supplies an interpretation of observations, rather than merely renaming a test score.^[ref]

Different operational definitions can target the same proposed attribute. Their agreement, differences and relationships to other measures inform construct validity. If a memory task also requires reading, a low score might reflect reading difficulty as well as the intended memory demand. Clear theory and several complementary measurements help distinguish these explanations.