Exploratory data analysis of executive functions in children: a new assessment battery
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Exploratory data analysis of executive functions in children: a new assessment battery María Marta Richard’s 1 & Santiago Vernucci 1 & Florencia Stelzer 1 & Isabel Introzzi 1 & Joan Guàrdia-Olmos 2
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract Executive Functions (EF) are fundamental during childhood since they participate actively in such heterogeneous domains as mental and physical health, learning, school performance, and cognitive, social and psychological development. Their evaluation is of interest, both in the field of clinical practice and research. Several criticisms and discussions have been generated regarding the available resources for its measurement, so it is necessary to have evaluation tasks that present adequate psychometric properties and that allow to evaluate each EF with the least possible interference of other processes. This paper aims to present the Tareas de Autorregulación Cognitiva Battery (TAC), a computerized platform designed for independent measurement of inhibition, working memory and cognitive flexibility, as well as obtaining evidence of construct validity from a set of tasks that compose it. 103 children between 9 and 12 years of age from the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina, were assessed. The results of the factor analysis showed a solution of 3 factors, which significantly explain 52.79% of the variance. These results, together with the scientific evidence presented by previous studies, provide empirical support of the validity of the tasks analyzed in the present study. Thus, this study contributes to the literature by presenting a computerized battery for specific and independent assessment of the different executive processes, valid for its application in children. Keywords Executive functions . Computerized tasks . Exploratory analysis . Children . Tareas de Autorregulación Cognitiva battery (TAC) Self-regulation is defined as the ability to modulate thoughts, behaviors and emotions to achieve short- and long-term goals and objectives; it is a multifaceted construct wherein executive functions (EFs) play a significant contributing role (Hofmann et al. 2012; Miyake et al. 2000). EFs are defined as a set of higher-order mental processes that contribute to selfregulation in situations where the achievement of a goal requires concentration and where automated responses are inadequate (Burgess and Simons 2005; Diamond 2013; Espy 2004; McCloskey et al. 2009). In this sense, EFs are higher order mental functions that allow self-regulation by supporting important operations in an individual’s selfregulatory goal pursuits (Hofmann et al. 2012). EFs are critical * María Marta Richard’s [email protected] 1
Institute of Basic, Applied Psychology and Technology, National University of Mar del Plata, National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), Mar del Plata, Argentina
2
Department of Methodology of Behavioral Sciences, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
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