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Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment
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Creativity Lost

The Importance of Testing Higher-Level Executive Functions in School-Age Children and Adolescents

Dean C. Delis

University of California, San Diego, San Diego Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, ddelis{at}ucsd.edu

Amy Lansing

University of California, San Diego, San Diego Veterans Affairs Healthcare System

Wes S. Houston

University of Iowa

Spencer Wetter

University of California, San Diego, San Diego Veterans Affairs Healthcare System

S. Duke Han

Loyola University, Chicago

Mark Jacobson

University of California, San Diego, San Diego Veterans Affairs Healthcare System

James Holdnack

University of Iowa

Joel Kramer

University of California, San Francisco

In school settings, students are typically evaluated using group achievement tests, IQ scales, and college entrance exams that focus more on rote-verbal skills (e.g., vocabulary, mathematical facts) than on higher level executive functions (e.g., abstract thinking, problem solving). However, recent neuropsychological findings suggest that rote-knowledge skills and executive functions are divergent cognitive domains that can be dissociated in both adults with frontal lesions and children with neurodevelopmental disorders. New correlational findings obtained from 470 children and adolescents provide additional support for the divergent nature of these cognitive domains and the existence of subgroups of students who exhibit either strengths in abstract, creative thinking with relative weaknesses in rote-verbal skills or vice versa. The results suggest that current school assessment practices may result in academic roadblocks for those students who have strengths in abstract, creative thinking but whose relative weaknesses in rote-verbal skills may hinder their ability to take college entrance exams.

Key Words: IQ • Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System • neuropscyhology • achievement tests

Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, Vol. 25, No. 1, 29-40 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0734282906292403
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 Arch Clin NeuropsycholHome page
E. L. Kalkut, S. D. Han, A. E. Lansing, J. A. Holdnack, and D. C. Delis
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Arch Clin Neuropsychol, September 1, 2009; 24(6): 565 - 574.
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