| The clinical utility of the Intermediate Category Test, a measure of executive functioning in children 9 to 14 years of age, is currently limited by the availability of only a Total Error score for normative interpretation. The Process Scoring System (PSS) was developed to provide a standardized method of assessing specific processing patterns and problem-solving errors. The purpose of this study was to determine the ability of the PSS scores to discriminate between children with and without suspected executive deficits, thereby providing evidence of criterion-related validity. Children with TBI were used in this study because of the high rate of executive dysfunction typically found in this group.;Twenty normally-achieving children without TBI and 20 children with TBI of varying severity, ages 9 to 14, participated in this study. ANCOVA (using socio-economic status as covariate) indicated a significant difference in Total Error scores between the two groups, but no group differences in the discrete concept formation or problem-solving response type scores. However, preliminary analysis revealed that the TBI group scored within the average range overall, suggesting that this group was not representative of children with executive dysfunction. ANCOVA comparing uninjured children to a more severely injured subgroup of children with TBI (n = 14) indicated that more severely injured children make significantly more Perseverative Errors and random errors than uninjured children. Implications of these findings in terms of the clinical utility of the PSS were discussed. |
