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Ecological validity and multitasking environments in the evaluation of the executive functions

I. Bombín-González, A. Cifuentes-Rodríguez, G. Climent, P. Luna-Lario, J. Cardas-Ibáñez, J. Tirapu-Ustárroz, U. Díaz-Orueta [REV NEUROL 2014;59:77-87] PMID: 25005319 DOI: https://doi.org/10.33588/rn.5902.2013578

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Volumen 59 | Number 02 | Nº of views of the article 9.235 | Nº of PDF downloads 1.494 | Article publication date 16/07/2014

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ABSTRACT

Evaluation of executive functions is a major issue of neuropsychological assessment, due to the role displayed by these on a cognitive, behavioural and emotional level, and the implication of these functions in daily life functioning. In order to perform a reliable assessment, the strategy traditionally followed for the evaluation of executive functions has been their atomization in different cognitive subprocesses, which is useful in a clinical or a research context. However, in clinical practice it is frequently artificial to disintegrate a global and complex cognitive process, such as executive functions, in a variety of related components; thus, tests designed according to these theoretical processes have low value in clinical procedures (diagnosis, rehabilitation design) due to their poor correspondence with the subject’s or patient’s clinical reality. The aims of the present work are to revise the concept of ecological validity applied to the evaluation of executive functions, and to perform a critical review of executive functions assessment by means of multitask paradigms as a way to increase the ecological validity and predictive value of the subject’s functional performance. After a historical journey around the (low) ecological validity of single-task tests, and the bet in favour of a multitask paradigm for the evaluation of executive functions, up-to-date existing multitask tests are presented meticulously (with their respective advantages and disadvantages). Finally, concrete recommendations about how to develop multitask tests in the future are presented, attending to concrete parameters related to the context, tasks, objectives, rules and scoring. KeywordsDaily life activities Ecological validity Executive functions Multitask tests Neuropsychological assessment Predictive validity

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Ecological validity and multitasking environments in the evaluation of the executive functions