Evaluation of a novel unstructured performance measure of executive functioning for university students

INTRODUCTION: Executive functions (EFs) are higher order cognitive skills implicated in various neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, including ADHD. Yet, there is a range of strategies for measuring EFs, with commonly used objective performance-based measures and subjective rating scales often yielding weak associations. This discrepancy may reflect objective measures relying on highly structured test administration procedures and rating scales' greater ability to capture self-direction, everyday functioning, and emotional aspects of EF. The present study evaluated the concurrent validity of a novel unstructured performance task (UPT) designed to assess self-direction in university students. METHOD: One hundred twenty-one university students were included in the study. Performance was compared across the UPT and commonly used EF objective measures and rating scales. The relations between each EF measure and mood symptoms were also assessed. CONCLUSION: No evidence was found suggesting that the UPT better captures self-direction compared with traditional performance measures. However, the UPT may provide an alternative, unstructured EF measure that is relatively less related to mood symptoms. .