Strategy Application Test: Discriminate Validity Studies

Purpose. Having a method of testing strategy application abilities provides important information for occupational performance. The goal of the present study was to investigate the discriminate validity of a strategy application test. This test measures the ability to apply and maintain a working strategy for efficient execution of tasks. The advantages of this test are that it is standardized, short, simple to administer, and applicable to various clinical populations. Method. Five different groups of participants were studied: senior healthy people, children affected by attention***deficit hyperactivity disorder, people with multiple sclerosis or with depression and schizophrenia. All of these individuals had some frontal lobe involvement, thus suggesting possible executive dysfunction. Results. As hypothesized, the results demonstrated strategy application skill impairment in all the clinical groups, as well as a gradual decline in strategy application abilities with advanced aging. Practice Implications. These results exhibit the discriminate validity of the strategy application test and add to the accumulating evidence of executive dysfunction in these populations.