Measures and References: Cognitive Flexibility

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Measures

Numerous measures exist to gain a full picture of a student's learning strengths and challenges. Following are examples of measures used to assess this Learner Factor. These measures should be administered and interpreted by experienced professionals.

Trail Making Test (part B) (Bowie & Harvey, 2006): Measures Cognitive Flexibility by requiring students to connect/draw a line between labeled points on a sheet of paper according to a rule of alternating between numbers and letters (e.g. 1-> A->2->B->3->C…).

References

Baumgartner, S. E., Weeda, W. D., van der Heijden, L. L., & Huizinga, M. (2014). The Relationship Between Media Multitasking and Executive Function in Early Adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence, 34(8), 1120-1144.

Best, J. R., Miller, P. H., & Naglieri, J. A. (2011). Relations between executive function and academic achievement from ages 5 to 17 in a large, representative national sample. Learning and Individual Differences, 21(4), 327-336.

Bock, A. M., Gallaway, K. C., & Hund, A. M. (2015). Specifying links between executive functioning and theory of mind during middle childhood: Cognitive flexibility predicts social understanding. Journal of Cognition and Development, 16(3), 509-521.

Bowie, C., Harvey, P. D. (2006). Administration and interpretation of Trail Making Test. Nature Protocols, 1(5), 2277-2281.

Christoffels, I. K., Haan, A. M. De, & Colzato, L. S. (2015). Two is better than one: Bilingual education promotes the flexible mind. Psychological Research, 79, 371-379.

Duan, X., Wei, S., Wang, G., & Shi, J. (2010). The relationship between executive functions and intelligence on 11- to 12-year- old children. Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling, 52(4), 419-431.

Figueroa, I. J., & Youmans, R. J. (2013, July). Individual differences in cognitive flexibility predict poetry originality. In International Conference on Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics (pp. 290-296). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Kaplan, S., & Berman, M. G. (2010). Directed attention as a common resource for executive functioning and self-regulation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(1), 43-57.

Kuhn, D., & Udell, W. (2007). Coordinating own and other perspectives in argument. Thinking and Reasoning, 13(2), 90-104.

Krumm, G., Filippetti, V. A., & Gutierrez, M. (2018). The contribution of executive functions to creativity in children: What is the role of crystallized and fluid intelligence?. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 29, 185-195.

Nippold, M. A., Ward-Lonergan, J. M., & Fanning, J. L. (2005). Persuasive writing in children, adolescents, and adults: A study of syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic development. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 36, 125-138.

Oades, R. D., & Christiansen, H. (2008). Cognitive switching processes in young people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 23(1), 21-32.

Randazzo, A. C., Muehlbach, M. J., Schweitzer, P. K., & Walsh, J. K. (1998). Cognitive function following acute sleep restriction in children ages 10-14. Pediatric Sleep, 21(8), 861-868.

Sarsour, K., Sheridan, M., Jutte, D., Nuru-jeter, A., Hinshaw, S., & Boyce, W. T. (2011). Family socioeconomic status and child executive functions: The roles of language, home environment, and single parenthood. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 17, 120-132.

Spann, M. N., Mayes, L. C., & Kalmar, J. H. (2012). Childhood abuse and neglect and cognitive flexibility in adolescents. Child Neuropsychology, 18(2), 182-189.

Van der Niet, A. G., Hartman, E., Smith, J., & Visscher, C. (2014). Modeling relationships between physical fitness, executive functioning, and academic achievement in primary school children. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 15(4), 319-325.

Vetter, N. C., Altgassen, M., Phillips, L., Mahy, C. E. V., & Kliegel, M. (2013). Development of affective theory of mind across adolescence: Disentangling the role of executive functions. Developmental Neuropsychology, 38(2), 114-125.

Yeniad, N., Malda, M., Mesman, J., Van Ijzendoorn, M. H., & Pieper, S. (2013). Shifting ability predicts math and reading performance in children: A meta-analytical study. Learning and Individual Differences, 23(1), 1-9.