Dynamic Assessment of Executive Functioning: (How) Can We Measure Change?

• Published in: Journal of cognitive education and psychology 2008-01, Vol.7 (3), p.368-387
• Main Authors: Weingartz, Sebastian, Wiedl, Karl H., Watzke, Stefan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Cognitive, Biological, and Neurological Psychology; Psychology; School and Educational Psychology; Social and Personality Psychology
• ISSN: 1945-8959; 1810-7621
• DOI: 10.1891/194589508787724088

Dynamic Assessment (DA) is a diagnostic approach that integrates specific behavioral interventions into cognitive testing procedures and thus turns these procedures into tests of learning potential. An important issue in DA is the question of how change in performance following these interventions can be expressed statistically. In this study we describe both categorical and dimensional approaches to assessment of learning potential. A sample of patients suffering from schizophrenia, schizoaffective, or bipolar affective disorders (n = 115) completed a test-training-test version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) at two times with an interval of 12 months. The goal of this analysis was to investigate psychometric properties of common measures assessing performance change in executive functioning and to evaluate pragmatically their usefulness for DA. We analyzed the stability of different learning potential measures, their intercorrelation, convergent construct validity, discriminant construct validity using a measure of psychopathology, and their concurrent and prospective criterion validity using measures of social functioning. Learner groups, posttest scores, and regression residuals proved to be the most stable and valid measures of learning potential. Pros and cons of the different approaches are discussed.