Executive Functions and Real-World Performance: How Good are We at Distinguishing People with Acquired Brain Injury from Healthy Controls?

Abstract

Individuals with cognitive deficits sometimes make errors during the performance of everyday tasks, such as forgetting to turn off the stove. Despite the implicit assumption that clinicians can discriminate individuals with executive function deficits from healthy controls, investigating the validity of this assumption is critical to informed treatment plans. A convenience sample of 90 occupational therapists and neuropsychologists were recruited. Clinicians analyzed 27 one- to three-minute video clips illustrating errors made during the Baycrest Multiple Errands Test (Dawson et al., 2009). The clinicians indicated whether each error had been committed by a person with or without neurological impairment. Clinicians attributed only 15 of the 27 errors (55.6%) to the correct population at a proportion significantly different than chance ( p < .05). Therapists should be cautious when interpreting single errors observed in individuals with cognitive deficits.