The ecological validity of tests of executive function

Ninety-two mixed etiology neurological patients and 216 control participant s were assessed on a range of neuropsychological tests, including 10 neurop sychological measures of executive function derived from 6 different tests. People who knew the patients well (relatives or carers) completed a questi onnaire about the patient's dysexecutive problems in everyday life, and thi s paper reports the extent to which the tests predicted the patients' every day life problems. All of the tests were significantly predictive of at lea st some of the behavioral and cognitive deficits reported by patients' care rs. However, factor analysis of the patients' dysexecutive symptoms suggest ed a fractionation of the dysexecutive syndrome, with neuropsychological te sts loading differentially on 3 underlying cognitive factors (Inhibition, I ntentionality, and Executive Memory), supporting the conclusions that diffe rent tests measure different cognitive processes, and that then may be limi ts to the fractionation of the executive system.