WORKING MEMORY PERFORMANCE TEST FOR PRESCHOOLERS (PREMET) Brief Guide to the Foundations, Rationale, Construction, Validation, and Application

The research is based on a fundamental theoretical premise established by Diamond (2013): working memory (WM) acts as a precursor to other executive functions (EF) during early childhood, which justifies the need to assess it early. However, the study identifies a critical gap in the literature and assessment practice: existing instruments for assessing executive functions in Spanish-speaking preschool children in Latin America have been developed in sociocultural contexts foreign to these populations. The available adaptations do not adequately consider the ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic characteristics of Latin American children, which compromises ecological validity and the accuracy of assessments. This methodological limitation represents a significant obstacle both for research on child cognitive development and for clinical and educational practice in the region. Therefore, the objective of the research was to develop the Working Memory Performance Test for preschool children (PREMET) and examine its fundamental psychometric properties, rigorously following the instrument construction and validation procedure proposed by Boateng et al. (2018). Note. The first two authors mentioned share the most significant contribution to the development of PREMET.