Executive Functioning and Verbal Memory test
Verdandi
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When i was being tested for ADHD i had to sit on a computer for 15minutes hitting the space bar everytime a letter flashed on the screen. I was told to not press space when the letter X appeared. It was very difficult for me not to press space once it came. I was told however that people who do not have adhd also struggled to skip the X'es.
swbluto
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I was googling autism and executive functioning and came across an interesting research paper that was evaluating the diagnostic suitability of various executive functioning tests in help evaluating autism/aspergers (at http://www.iapsych.com/articles/hill2006.pdf). Here's the important conclusion:
those with and without AS on all ‘classical’ tests of executive function, once difficulties in psychomotor processing and
visual search had been accounted for (cf. group difference on
trails A and B). However, surprisingly large differences were
found on other, newer tests of executive function, in particular on the Six Elements task of the BADS and on the Hayling
test. These tests were sensitive not only at a group level but also
on a case-by-case basis and they correlated with measures of
autistic behaviour
So, it looks like the Six Elements task of the BADS and on the Hayling
test are *the* tests to take for evaluating executive functioning for evaluating the likelihood of possessing autism. I wonder what those tests are like (I wonder if they're similar to this one?)?
From the paper:
tested using this multi-component task. Participants must carry out six separate tasks (two dictation, two arithmetic and two picture-naming tasks), within
10 min, whilst obeying a simple rule (do not carry out two of the same tasks
consecutively). Whilst participants are not expected to complete each task,
they must carry out at least part of all six. It is not important how well the
participant performs the individual component tasks. Performance is measured as the number of tasks attempted, the number of rule breaks, and the
maximum time spent on any individual subtask.
1.1.1.2. Hayling test (Burgess & Shallice, 1997). Response initiation and suppression are measured by this test which comprises two parts. In the first part, 15
incomplete sentences are read aloud and must be completed by a word that makes
the sentence meaningful (e.g. ‘he posted the letter without a . . . stamp’). In the
second part, 15 further sentences are presented which have to be completed by
a word that does not fit into the context of the sentence (e.g. ‘the captain wanted
to stay with the sinking . . . toaster’). Four scores were of interest—time taken
part one (response initiation), time taken part two, errors part two (response
suppression, strategy formation) and overall efficiency score.
Hmmm... I wonder how I could get a hold of these tests? Or, possibly, if I learn a sufficiently great amount of information about these tests, I might be able to create an online clone and we could then norm that on AS and NT individuals and then the internet will then have one, or two, more tests available for the purposes of effectively diagnosing the likelihood of having autism! Oh gee, the possibility excites me.
Btw, I posted an "NT thread" for score comparison at http://personalitycafe.com/cognitive-fu ... t-t-f.html . It turns out 2 out of the 3 NTs, so far, are in the average range while the last guy (At this point in time) did "really really badly" on the switching attention part (He didn't want to divulge an exact number.). So, even though the number of tested NTs are small at this point, it appears there's a definite difference between the "normal"/"low score" ratio between NTs and "official AS individuals" on the switching attention task, suggesting that an executive functioning test would be useful for diagnosing autism/aspergers. I'm not sure how good this particular test is compared to other executive functioning tests out there.
I'm really interested to understand the correlation between Exec Dysfunction and AS.
Taking this test only piqued my interest further, being that there was such a wide discrepancy between my two scores, and there seems to be a clear pattern of low executive functioning amongst people here.
If I pay attention to it, I can feel the lag in processing that occurs with specific tasks or environments. This test was a fantastic example of that.
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I would guess: poor or impaired short-term memory, due to... injury, drug use, or plain genetics. Something like that...
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swbluto
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I would guess: poor or impaired short-term memory, due to... injury, drug use, or plain genetics. Something like that...
I was going to guess poor verbal working memory, as you need verbal working memory to properly encode the words into longer-term memory storage ("Short term" memory supposedly lasts for 2-5 seconds or some such.), whereas, the other parts of executive functioning are spared.
However, I'd suspect if you tried the test 4 times, and your scores varied from the 2nd percentile to the 97th percentile, that's what we call the practice affect. To minimize the practice affect, you should wait a month before taking the test again.
Btw, I'm still suspicious about the seeming group discrepancies in verbal memory between older and younger testers. It seems statistically significant enough to suspect that their age-related score adjustments might not be adjusted well enough.
I just culled the verbal scores for the "older testers" and here's what the results are:
Official AS (name - estimated_age; verbal_memory_score)
------------------------
wavefreak - 50; 1
verdandia - 40; 1
kon - 60; 1
apple_in_my_eye - 42; 1
raquiGirl - 38; 90
Unknown
--------------------------
ojani - 38; 32
Rhiannon0828 - 42; 79
It appears there's a definite group difference in verbal scores among the older "officially diagnosed" group as compared to younger testers who usually score between the 30-90 percentile. I suspect their score adjustments for older testers are off by quite a bit, unless there could be an explanation why there'd be a large percentage of older users on the board with lower scores. (Maybe the older aspies who are more verbally skilled are too busy in the "real world", whereas a lot of the younger people on the boards tend to be students so there's a more normal distribution among younger forum users? Or maybe older users tend to have a more severe form of aspergers than younger users?)
Official AS (name - estimated_age; verbal_memory_score)
------------------------
wavefreak - 50; 1
verdandia - 40; 1
kon - 60; 1
apple_in_my_eye - 42; 1
raquiGirl - 38; 90
Unknown
--------------------------
ojani - 38; 32
Rhiannon0828 - 42; 79
Does anybody relate to these?
-have trouble paying attention to and remembering information presented orally, and may cope better with visually acquired information
-have problems carrying out multi-step directions given orally; need to hear only one direction at a time
-have poor listening skills
-need more time to process information
-disliking locations with background noise such as bar, clubs or other social locations
-a preference for written communication (e.g. text chat)
-having trouble paying attention and remembering information when information is simultaneously presented in multiple modalities
P.S. I'm still in my 40s. I wish I was in my 60s as I'm looking forward to retirement.
Verdandi
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Age: 54
Gender: Female
Posts: 12,275
Location: University of California Sunnydale (fictional location - Real location Olympia, WA)
swbluto,
I'm 41.
-have trouble paying attention to and remembering information presented orally, and may cope better with visually acquired information
-have problems carrying out multi-step directions given orally; need to hear only one direction at a time
-have poor listening skills
-need more time to process information
-disliking locations with background noise such as bar, clubs or other social locations
-a preference for written communication (e.g. text chat)
-having trouble paying attention and remembering information when information is simultaneously presented in multiple modalities
P.S. I'm still in my 40s. I wish I was in my 60s as I'm looking forward to retirement.
- Yes, all the time.
- Yes, all the time.
- Yes, all the time.
- Yes, all the time.
- Yes, all the time.
- Yes, all the time.
- Yes, all the time.
Verbal memory: 86th percentile
Executive Functioning: 34th percentile
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