Ecological Validity of Neuropsychological and Personality Measures of Executive Functions

Abstract

Associations between two types of measures of executive functions, namely, neuropsychological and personality, and measures of real-world behavior were investigated. Undergraduate students were administered neuropsychological measures of executive functions and completed a personality questionnaire developed to measure traits central to the construct of executive functions. Participants also reported on their behavior. Hierarchical regressions indicated that neuropsychological and personality measures of executive functions were significant predictors of different types of behavior. Neuropsychological measures predicted work behaviors and personality measures predicted substance use, risk-taking, and aggressive behaviors. Findings highlight the importance of including personality assessment in standard neuropsychological assessment in order to maximize ability to predict real-world behaviors relevant to independent and socially responsible functioning.

Type 1 Diabetes in Youth: The Relationship Between Adherence and Executive Functioning

“…Consistent with our first hypothesis, our findings suggest that a child's ability to problem solve, selfmonitor, and utilize working memory is related to adherence to the diabetic regimen. This finding is consistent with previous data suggesting that executive functioning skills are related to diabetes adherence behaviors (Alioto & Janusz, 2004), as well as research from normative and clinical populations indicating that executive dysfunction is associated with negative behavioral outcomes such as aggression, risk-taking, and problems with activities of daily living (Ready et al, 2001;Semkovska et al, 2004). Diabetes treatment regimens require insulin dose adjustment based on dietary intake, blood-glucose monitoring results, and activity level.…”

“…In addition to this finding in a pediatric diabetes population, executive functioning skills have been linked to behavioral outcomes in other populations. Ready, Stearman, and Paulsen (2001) examined the ecological validity of college students' self-report of executive functioning. Results of this study suggest that in a normative college sample, poor executive functioning was significantly and positively associated with risk taking and aggressive behaviors.…”

Assessing executive performance during cognitive rehabilitation

“…This may be one reason for the numerous studies which utilised the veridicality approach (see Burgess, Alderman, Evans, Emslie, & Wilson, 1998;Chaytor, Schmitter-Edgecombe, & Burr, 2006;Hoskin, Jackson, & Crowe, 2005;Manchester, Priestley, & Jackson, 2004;Mitchell & Miller, 2008;Odhuba, van den Broek, & Johns, 2005;Ready, Stierman, & Paulsen, 2001;Semkovska, Bedard, Godbout, Limoge, & Stip, 2004;Van der Elst, Van Boxtel, Van Breukelen, & Jolles, 2008;Wood & Liossi, 2006). Despite this extensive research, the ecological validity of traditional measures of executive functioning tends to remain in the low to moderate range, with Pearson's correlations ranging from .24 to .50 (Burgess et al, 1998;Chaytor et al, 2006;Manchester et al, 2004).…”

Executive Function and the Frontal Lobes: A Meta-Analytic Review

“…Despite the seemingly paradigmatic shift within psychology where the study of behavior has become the study of the brain (i.e., many psychologists now are studying which brain regions underlie certain behaviors rather than studying the behaviors themselves), it is important to ground the executive function construct in the measurement of observable behaviors that have realworld significance. There is a need for more ecologically valid executive function measures (Burgess et al, 1998;Cripe, 1996;Ready et al, 2001;Sbordone, 1996;Wilson, 1993).…”