Rates of executive dysfunction in undergraduate research participants

Author

Sara K. Pardej, Marquette UniversityFollow
Morgan E. Nitta, Marquette UniversityFollow
James B. Hoelzle, Marquette UniversityFollow

Periodical Title

Modern Psychological Studies

Volume

24

Number

1

Department

Dept. of Psychology

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Date

2018

Abstract

It is infrequently recognized that healthy individuals occasionally obtain impaired scores on neuropsychological measures. This research was conducted to determine how often healthy undergraduate research participants obtain impaired scores on popular measures of executive functioning. Specifically, performance on the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Trail Making and Color-Word Interference subtests was investigated in a sample of 335 undergraduate research participants. Rates of impaired performance varied across subtests and ranged from 11% (Color-Word Interference Word Reading) to 3% (Trail Making Test Motor Speed). In general, individuals with greater intellectual functioning had higher scores and fewer impaired scores. Findings are consistent with a broad literature describing the psychometric properties of neuropsychological measures. Researchers should recognize that it is relatively common to observe impaired scores in healthy research participants when interpreting research and clinical data.

Subject

Psychology

Keyword

D-KEFS; executive function; stroop; trail making test; neuropsychology

Discipline

Psychology

Document Type

article

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Recommended Citation

Pardej, Sara K.; Nitta, Morgan E.; and Hoelzle, James B. (2018) "Rates of executive dysfunction in undergraduate research participants," Modern Psychological Studies: Vol. 24: No. 1, Article 6.
Available at: https://scholar.utc.edu/mps/vol24/iss1/6