Evaluation of the Validity of a Set of Executive Functions’ Tests in a Sample of Iranian Children

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Professor, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience (Brain and Cognition), Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

2 PhD Student in Cognitive Neuroscience (Brain and Cognition), Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

3 PhD in Psychology, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

4 PhD in Psychology, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran

5 PhD in Clinical Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

6 MA in Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

7 PhD Student in Cognitive Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

10.52547/apsy.2022.225080.1227

Abstract

Aim: Executive functions, as a set of cognitive abilities, enable us to manage our behaviors. Typical development of executive functions is crucial for adulthood health, wealth, and academic achievement. The aim of this study was to design and validate some executive function tests in a sample of Iranian children. Method: In the present study, in a cross-sectional design, 1676 students, aged from 6 to15 years old, were participated in 9 different studies with different executive functions tests: Trial Making Test (TMT), Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT), Token Test (TT), Design Fluency Test (DFT), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Stroop Test (ST), Tower of Hanoi Test (TOHT), and Visual Span Test (VST). Repeated measure ANOVA was used to evaluate discriminative validity between different age groups. Results: Findings described significant discriminative validity for TMT (p<0.05), DFT (p<0.05), RCFT (P<0.01), TT (P<0.01), VST (P<0.01), WCST (P<0.01), ST (P<0.01), and TOHT (P<0.01). Conclusion: The executive functions tests are valid to study typical developmental. These tests are proposed to use in clinical setting to monitor the developmental disorders and/or respective interventions.

Keywords

References

تقی ­زاده، ط.، محمدزاده، ع.، نجاتی، و.، اکبرزاده باغبان، ع. (1393). بررسی حافظه بخاطرسپاری اعداد در کودکان 7-12 سال. طب توانبخشی. 3 (2)، 1-7.
قدیری، ف.، جزایری، ع.، عشایری، ح.، قاضی طباطبایی، م. (1385). نقایص کارکردهای اجرایی در بیماران اسکیزو- وسواسی. تازه­های علوم شناختی. 8 (3)، 11-24.
کریمی علی­آباد، ت.، کافی، م.، فرهی، ح. (1389). بررسی کارکردهای اجرایی بیماران مبتلا به اختلال دوقطبی. تازه­های علوم شناختی. 12 (2)، 29-39.
نجاتی، و. (1397). دستنامه جامع توانبخشی شناختی در اختلالات تحولی. تهران: رشد فرهنگ.
نجاتی، و.، علیپور، ف. (1395). ویژگی­های روانسنجی ابزارهای فراخنای عدد، کلمه و ناکلمه و مقایسه آن­ها در سنجش حافظه کاری کودکان. فصلنامه روانشناسی کاربردی. 1 (37)، 73-88.
Allan, N. P., Hume, L. E., Allan, D. M., Farrington, A. L., & Lonigan, C. J. (2014). Relations between inhibitory control and the development of academic skills in preschool and kindergarten: a meta-analysis. Developmental psychology, 50(10), 2368.
Arán Filippetti, V., & Krumm, G. (2020). A hierarchical model of cognitive flexibility in children: Extending the relationship between flexibility, creativity and academic achievement. Child Neuropsychology, 26(6), 770-800.
Aron, A. R., Robbins, T. W., & Poldrack, R. A. (2004). Inhibition and the right inferior frontal cortex. Trends in cognitive sciences, 8(4), 170-177.
Bernier, A., Carlson, S. M., & Whipple, N. (2010). From external regulation to self‐regulation: Early parenting precursors of young children’s executive functioning. Child development, 81(1), 326-339.
Berry, D. T. R., Allen, R. S., & Schmitt, F. A. (1991). Rey-Osterrieth Figure: Psychometric characteristics in a geriatric sample. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 5, 143–153.
Best, J. R., & Miller, P. H. (2010). A developmental perspective on executive function. Child development, 81(6), 1641-1660.
Bierman, K. L., Nix, R. L., Greenberg, M. T., Blair, C., & Domitrovich, C. E. (2008). Executive functions and school readiness intervention: Impact, moderation, and mediation in the Head Start REDI program. Development and psychopathology, 20(3), 821-843.
Bjorklund, D. F., & Kipp, K. (1996). Parental investment theory and gender differences in the evolution of inhibition mechanisms. Psychological bulletin, 120(2), 163.
Blackwell, K. A., Cepeda, N. J., & Munakata, Y. (2009). When simple things are meaningful: Working memory strength predicts children’s cognitive flexibility. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 103(2), 241-249.
Blair, C., & Raver, C. C. (2015). School readiness and self-regulation: A developmental psychobiological approach. Annual review of psychology, 66, 711-731.
Blakemore, S. J., & Choudhury, S. (2006). Development of the adolescent brain: implications for executive function and social cognition. Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, 47(3‐4), 296-312.
Bonino, S., & Cattelino, E. (1999). The relationship between cognitive abilities and social abilities in childhood: A research on flexibility in thinking and co-operation with peers. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 23(1), 19-36.
Bull, R., Espy, K. A., & Wiebe, S. A. (2008). Short-term memory, working memory, and executive functioning in preschoolers: Longitudinal predictors of mathematical achievement at age 7 years. Developmental neuropsychology, 33(3), 205-228.
Bunge, S. A., Dudukovic, N. M., Thomason, M. E., Vaidya, C. J., & Gabrieli, J. D. (2002). Immature frontal lobe contributions to cognitive control in children: evidence from fMRI. Neuron, 33(2), 301-311.
Carlson, S. M., & Moses, L. J. (2001). Individual differences in inhibitory control and children's theory of mind. Child development, 72(4), 1032-1053.
Carlson, S. M., Zelazo, P. D., & Faja, S. (2013). Executive function. Oxford Hand- book of Developmental Psychology, 1, 706–742.
Carriedo, N., Corral, A., Montoro, P. R., Herrero, L., & Rucián, M. (2016). Development of the updating executive function: From 7-year-olds to young adults. Developmental Psychology, 52(4), 666.
Carver, A. C., Livesey, D. J., & Charles, M. (2001). Age related changes in inhibitory control as measured by stop signal task performance. International Journal of Neuroscience, 107(1-2), 43-61.
Chevalier, N., Sheffield, T. D., Nelson, J. M., Clark, C. A., Wiebe, S. A., & Espy, K. A. (2012). Underpinnings of the costs of flexibility in preschool children: The roles of inhibition and working memory. Developmental neuropsychology, 37(2), 99-118.
Coelho, L. F., Rosário, M. C. D., Mastrorosa, R. S., Miranda, M. C., & Bueno, O. F. A. (2012). Performance of a Brazilian sample on the computerized Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Psychology & Neuroscience, 5(2), 147-156.
Currie, N. K., & Cain, K. (2015). Children’s inference generation: The role of vocabulary and working memory. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 137, 57-75.
Diamond, A. (2013). Executive functions. Annual review of psychology, 64, 135-168.
Diamond, A. (2016). Why improving and assessing executive functions early in life is critical. In J. A. Griffin, P. McCardle, & L. S. Freund (Eds.), Executive function in pre-school age children: Integrating measurement, neurodevelopment, and translational research. Washington, DC: APA.
Ellison, P. A. T., & Semrud-Clikeman, M. (2007). Child neuropsychology: Assessment and interventions for neurodevelopmental disorders. Springer Science & Business Media.
Fastenau, P. S., Bennett, J. M., & Denburg, N. L. (1996). Application of psychometric standards to scoring system evaluation: Is “new” necessarily “improved”? Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 18, 462–472.
Frank, J., & Landeira-Fernandez, J. (2008). Comparison between two scoring systems of the Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure in left and right temporal lobe epileptic patients. Archives of clinical neuropsychology, 23(7-8), 839-845.
Gallaher, A. J. (1979). Temporal reliability of aphasic performance on the Token Test. Brain and language, 7(1), 34-41.
Gangopadhyay, I., Davidson, M. M., Weismer, S. E., & Kaushanskaya, M. (2016). The role of nonverbal working memory in morph syntactic processing by school-aged monolingual and bilingual children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 142(1): 171-194.
Garon, N., Bryson, S. E., & Smith, I. M. (2008). Executive function in preschoolers: a review using an
Heyder, K., Suchan, B., & Daum, I. (2004). Cortico-subcortical contributions to executive control. Acta psychologica, 115(2-3), 271-289.
Hughes, C., & Ensor, R. (2011). Individual differences in growth in executive function across the transition to school predict externalizing and internalizing behaviors and self-perceived academic success at 6 years of age. Journal of experimental child psychology, 108(3), 663-676.
Kar, B. R., Rao, S. L., & Chandramouli, B. A. (2008). Cognitive development in children with chronic protein energy malnutrition. Behavioral and Brain Functions, 4(1), 1-12.
Kolb, B., Mychasiuk, R., Muhammad, A., Li, Y., Frost, D. O., & Gibb, R. (2012). Experience and the developing prefrontal cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(Supplement 2), 17186-17193.
Lemercier, C., Simoës-Perlant, A., Schmidt, J. R., & Boujon, C. (2017). Stroop interference and development: Influence of expectation on color-naming response times. European Review of Applied Psychology, 67(1), 43-50.
Lensing, N., & Elsner, B. (2018). Development of hot and cool executive functions in middle childhood: three-year growth curves of decision making and working memory updating. Journal of experimental child psychology, 173, 187-204.
Liberman, J., Stewart, W., Seines, O., & Gordon, B. (1994). Rater agreement for the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 50, 615-624.
Llorente, A. M.,Williams, J., Satz, P., & D’Elia, L. F. (2003). Children’s Color Trails Test (CCTT). Odessa, FL: PAR.
Masten, A. S., Herbers, J. E., Desjardins, C. D., Cutuli, J. J., McCormick, C. M., Sapienza, J. K., ... & Zelazo, P. D. (2012). Executive function skills and school success in young children experiencing homelessness. Educational Researcher, 41(9), 375-384.
McClelland, M. M., Acock, A. C., & Morrison, F. J. (2006). The impact of kindergarten learning-related skills on academic trajectories at the end of elementary school. Early childhood research quarterly, 21(4), 471-490.
Meuwissen, A. S., & Carlson, S. M. (2018). The role of father parenting in children’s school readiness: A longitudinal follow-up. Journal of Family Psychology, 32(5), 588.
Meyers, J., & Meyers, K. (1995). The Meyers Scoring System for the Rey Complex Figure and the Recognition Trial: Professional manual. Odessa, Fla.: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Monette, S., Bigras, M., & Guay, M. C. (2015). Executive functions in kindergarteners with high levels of disruptive behaviours. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 33(4), 446-463.
Obradović, J. (2010). Effortful control and adaptive functioning of homeless children: Variable-focused and person-focused analyses. Journal of applied developmental psychology, 31(2), 109-117.
Orgass, B. (1976). Eine Revision des Token Tests II: Validitaetsnachweis, Normierung und Standardisierung. Diagnostica, 22, 141–156.
Pineda, D. A., & Merchan, V. (2003). Executive function in young Colombian adults. International Journal of Neuroscience, 113, 397–410.
Prime, H., Andrews, K., McTavish, J., Harris, M., Janus, M., Bennett, T., & Gonzalez, A. (2021). The application of positive parenting interventions to academic school readiness: A scoping review. Child: Care, Health and Development, 47(1), 1-14.
Ribner, A. D., Willoughby, M. T., Blair, C. B., & Family Life Project Key Investigators. (2017). Executive function buffers the association between early math and later academic skills. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 869.
Riccio, C. A., Reynolds, C. R., & Lowe, P. A. (2001). Clinical applications of continuous performance tests: Measuring attention and impulsive responding in children and adults. John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Rodríguez-Aranda, C., & Sundet, K. (2006). The frontal hypothesis of cognitive aging: factor structure and age effects on four frontal tests among healthy individuals. The Journal of genetic psychology, 167(3), 269-287.
Ross, T. P.,Axelrod, B. N.,Hanks, R. A.,Kotasek, R. S., & Whitman, R.D. (1996). The interrater and test-retest reliability of the Design Fluency and Ruff Figural Fluency Tests. Paper presented to the 24th meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society, Chicago.
Royan, J., Tombaugh, T. N., Rees, L., & Francis, M. (2004). The Adjusting-Paced Serial Addition Test (Adjusting-PSAT): Thresholds for speed of information processing as a function of stimulus modality and problem complexity. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 19, 131–143.
Schiffer, B., Müller, B. W., Scherbaum, N., Forsting, M., Wiltfang, J., Leygraf, N., & Gizewski, E. R. (2010). Impulsivity-related brain volume deficits in schizophrenia-addiction comorbidity. Brain, 133(10), 3093-3103.
Šimleša, S., & Cepanec, M. (2015). Development of executive functions during childhood. International encyclopedia of the social & behavioral Sciences, 489-496.
Smolker, H. R., Depue, B. E., Reineberg, A. E., Orr, J. M., & Banich, M. T. (2015). Individual differences in regional prefrontal gray matter morphometry and fractional anisotropy are associated with different constructs of executive function. Brain Structure and Function, 220(3), 1291-1306.
Spellacy, F., & Spreen, O. (1969). A short form of the Token Test. Cortex, 5, 390–397.
Spreen, O., & Strauss, E. (1998). A compendium of neuropsychological tests: Administration, norms and commentary (2nd ed.), New York: Oxford University Press.
Strauss, E., Sherman, E. M. S., & Spreen, O. (2006). A compendium of neuropsychological tests: Administration, norms, and commentary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Stuss, D. T. (2011). Functions of the frontal lobes: relation to executive functions. Journal of the international neuropsychological Society, 17(5), 759-765.
Uchiyama, C. L., Mitrushina, M. N., D’Elia, L. F., Satz, P., & Mathews, A. (1994). Frontal lobe functioning in geriatric and nongeriatric samples: An argument for multimodal analyses. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 9, 215–227.
Wager, T. D., & Smith, E. E. (2003). Neuroimaging studies of working memory. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 3(4), 255-274.
Willmes, K. (1981). A new look at the Token Test using probabilistic test models. Neuropsychologia, 19, 631–645.
Willoughby, M. T., Magnus, B., Vernon-Feagans, L., Blair, C. B., & Family Life Project Investigators. (2017). Developmental delays in executive function from 3 to 5 years of age predict kindergarten academic readiness. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 50(4), 359-372.
Zelazo, P. D. (2020). Executive function and psychopathology: A neurodevelopmental perspective. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 16, 431-454.
Zelazo, P. D., Blair, C. B., & Willoughby, M. T. (2016). Executive Function: Implications for Education. NCER 2017-2000. National Center for Education Research.
Zelazo, P. D., Carlson, S. M., & Kesek, A. (2008). The development of executive func- tion in childhood. In C. A. Nelson, & M. Luciana (Eds.), Developmental cognitive neuroscience. Handbook of developmental cognitive neuroscience, 553–574.

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics