Abstract
There is a current debate about the ecological validity of executive function (EF) tests. Consistent with the verisimilitude approach, this research proposes the Ballet Executive Scale (BES), a self-rating questionnaire that assimilates idiosyncratic executive behaviors of classical dance community. The BES was administrated to 149 adolescents, students of the Cuban Ballet School. Results present a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .80 and a split-half Spearman–Brown coefficient rSB = .81. An exploratory factor analysis describes a bifactorial pattern of EF dimensions, with a Self-Regulation component, which explains more than 40% of variance, and a Developmental component, which accounts for more than 20% of variance. The questionnaire’s total scores fit linear regression models with two external criteria of academic records, confirming concurrent validity. These findings support the hypothesis that the internalization of specific contextual cultural meanings has a mediating influence in the development of EF.
The study of executive function (EF) is a controversial issue in neurosciences. The concept itself is a nonunitary construct, focused on the evolutionary impact of a set of complex operations: strategic planning, flexibility and organization of cognitive resources, attentional control, working memory, motivation, and impulse control (Cummings, & Miller, 2007; Fuster, 2008). The integration of these operations allows for the leading of behavior toward goals, monitoring neurocognitive efforts (Rueda, Posner, & Rothbart, 2005) in nonordinary conditions (Norman, & Shallice, 1986). Determined by genetic and environmental influences, EF enables the occurrence of contextualized, specifically human (Ardila, 2008) self-regulated behaviors (Posner, 2008).
EF operations are based on the interaction between cortical and subcortical structures working together in parallel networks. Although several models of EF have been proposed, an integrated theory is still lacking (Banich, 2009). There is, however, an agreement on the critical involvement of prefrontal cortex (PFC) in neural networks that sustain executive behavior.
PFC circuits contribute differentially to the networks’ output (Cummings, & Miller, 2007), thus guiding the use of techniques for the assessment. The stock of EF assessment tools is varied and a methodological debate is currently taking place about the application of results outside the laboratory, stressing the crucial point of ecological validity (García-Molina, Tirapu-Ustárroz, & Roig-Rovira, 2007).
Some instruments model events of EF in everyday life challenging participants to cope with situations that simulate the neurocognitive demands of usual activities. This methodology associates the procedure’s efficacy to the likelihood that the rules and materials are meaningful to the assessed subject, through analogy with experiences in the real world. That is the nucleus of the verisimilitude approach of ecological validity (Kvavilashvili, & Ellis, 2004; Poletti, 2010).
It appears convenient to develop EF test observing people’s behaviors in their environments, hypothesizing the neurocognitive operations needed for people to carry out these behaviors, and creating or reformulating constructs with explanatory potential that integrate the hypothesized operations (Burgess et al., 2006). Only then is it possible to design instruments tailored to observations and inferences through which the constructs can continuously be tested. By taking on this verisimilitude approach, the arbitrary design is being contextualized and the validity turns ecological.
The verisimilitude approach of ecological validity is relevant for developing EF tests not only in cognitively impaired patients but also in healthy people. This article describes the designing of an EF questionnaire for dancers from two preceding bodies of knowledge, showing the usefulness of this strategy.
Previous studies in the Cuban Ballet School (Febles & Wong, 2002; Wong, 2001, 2005) identified the idiosyncratic executive behaviors in the social context of classical dance. This high-performance artistic practice generates particular challenges to human development (van Staden, Myburgh, & Poggenpoel, 2009). In ballet, executive behavior within a hierarchy of shared values is a priority and it is saturated of cultural specificity, therefore it is a good model for the studying of EF with ecological validity.
The other precedent is Spinella’s (2005) Executive Function Index (EFI). This questionnaire of good psychometric properties was conceived to evaluate the self perception of EF in healthy young and adult population.
The EF questionnaire for dancers assimilates idiosyncratic executive behaviors of ballet community, becoming one of the first instruments of its class in the arts. Its ecological validity is founded in the hypothesis that the internalization of specific contextual cultural meanings has a mediating influence in the development of EF during adolescence, the last critical period for these functions.
Method
Participants
A sample of 149 healthy adolescents (98 female and 51 male) was intentionally drawn from the Ballet School of Havana and the National Ballet School of Cuba. It was divided in three subsamples: adolescents 11 to 12 years old (n = 52) who study second level of ballet, adolescents 14 to 15 years old (n = 64) who study fifth level of ballet, and adolescents 17 to 18 years old (n = 33) who study eighth level of ballet. Informed consent was acquired from their parents, teachers, and the students themselves. No monetary reward was offered.
Instrument
The Ballet Executive Scale (BES) is a self-rating questionnaire of 44 items with answer options that range from 1 (nothing) to 5 (very much) on a Likert-type scale. The items were distributed in five dimensions of executive behavior adapted to classical dance: 7 items of Strategic Planning of Dance Learning (SPDL), 5 items of Organization of Dance Behavior (ODB), 11 items of Motivation to Dance (MD), 15 items of Impulse Control in Dance Behavior (ICDB) and 6 items of Empathy toward Other Dancers (EOD). 1
The formulation of items combined the methodological reference of EFI and the knowledge of dance culture. The original 27 items of the EFI were translated into Spanish and adequate versions for the classical dance social context were formulated. Seventeen items that model idiosyncratic executive behaviors in ballet community were added. The meaning of 24 items was inverted to control for acquiescence effect. Of those, 14 were of ICDB. Since this dimension has a greater number of items, it received a special content analysis aimed to compensate for its extension without lowering the ecological validity of the instrument. The items of all dimensions were distributed throughout the questionnaire, altering their contents to obtain a series of responses that would describe a balanced multilateral self evaluation of EF.
Procedure
The BES application was carried out collectively in standardized environmental conditions with group numbers varying between 4 and 20 participants. A common protocol was followed: (a) reading of instructions, (b) clearing general doubts, and (c) writing down answers. The scoring was done by adding the assigned points of each item. To obtain the best total punctuations for EF, the answers of 24 items that control the acquiescence effect were inverted. The statistical management of data included the standardization of scores, descriptive statistics, item analysis, linear regressions with two external criteria of academic records for concurrent validity, and exploratory factor analysis by principal components method.
Results
The total score of the BES shows a normal distribution (Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) d = 0.0807, p > .20) as well as each of the dimensions ODB (K-S d = 0.077, p > .20), MD (K-S d = 0.0833, p > .20), and ICDB (K-S d = 0.0769, p > .20). Values of total score have a mean of 175.64, standard deviation of 13.99, and a range of 126 to 204. The items analysis reveals an internal consistency Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .80 and a split-half Spearman–Brown coefficient rSB = .81.
To assess concurrent validity, linear regressions were calculated using the BES total score as the independent variable and the grades of school subject “Ballet” (B) and the Average (A) of all dancing subjects as dependent ones. The B criterion is a more specific measure than A, which informs about versatility in dance learning.
The following formulas describe the relationship between the BES and the concurrent validity criteria: B = 0.0238 + 0.2062(BES), p < .0277, F(1.112)=4.9731, and A = 0.0476 + 0.4123(BES), p < .00001, F(1.112) = 22.936. The independent variable significantly fits equations for both dependent ones, thus confirming the concurrent validity of the questionnaire.
The exploratory factor analysis by principal components method identifies a bifactorial pattern of EF dimensions. Saturations above 0.70 were chosen for the analysis. These saturations change among the subsamples (Table 1).
Exploratory Factor Analysis by Principal Components
Note. ODB = Organization of Dance Behavior; SPDL = Strategic Planning of Dance Learning; EOD = Empathy toward Other Dancers; MD = Motivation to Dance; ICDB = Impulse Control in Dance Behavior; Prp. Totl = Proportion Total.
For the 11 to 12 years old subsample, the highest saturations are found in MD and ICDB in Factor I, explaining 43.98% of variance, whereas Factor II does not have any relevant saturation and provides 20.11% of variance. However, in the 14 to 15 years old subsample, Factor I is shaped by prominent saturations in ICDB and ODB, which accounts for 43.89% of variance. In this group, Factor II has a salient saturation in EOD and elucidates 21.54% of variance. The subsample of 17 to 18 years old includes in Factor I the three dimensions that have been mentioned in younger dancers: MD, ICDB, and ODB, reporting 44.14% of variance. Factor II in this group, is characterized by an important saturation in SPDL and justifies 29% of variance. The factor analysis of the whole sample is very similar to the 11 to 12 years old subsample although with different saturations in MD and ICDB as the strongest dimensions of Factor I. This accounts for 44.9% of variance whereas Factor II accounts for 22.15%.
Discussion
An explanation for the BES’ efficacy can be well clarified through an example. Item 37 says, “When ballet shoes injure me, I keep dancing just the same.” Its formulation incorporates the MD tradition of enduring the straining of the foot’s anatomical structures, a demand imposed by the body technology of ballet (Ahonen, 2008). This is trained by means of exercises, among them en pointe jumps. It is what will later allow the virtuous performance on stage.
Astounding relationships are observed among the features that take form in real executive behaviors comprised in Item 37. Dancing en pointe is an artistic resource created in the 19th century as part of the Romantic Movement (Lee, 2002). Ballet teaching has provided procedures making possible its intergenerational transmission. However, the exercising of those procedures causes physical injury, and dancers must endure pain, bleeding, and bone deformations. The phenomenology of this resilience sits on the neural mechanisms of motivation, activated in the PFC (Kouneiher, Charron, & Koechlin, 2009) in connection with the limbic system (Damasio, Everitt, & Bishop, 1996).
This analysis integrates complementary levels (historic and aesthetic antecedents, didactics, phenomenology, neuroscience), therefore the results of the BES can be explained with the following hypothesis: If the neurocognitive operations that conform EF are structured through the mediation of the internalization of specific contextual cultural meanings, the efficacy of the BES is because of the successful transfer of the mediating influences of that sociocultural process, to the instrumental field. It is the main line of reasoning toward which the research findings gravitate.
Several conclusions can be drawn from the factor analysis. First, this confirms that the BES detects the development of EF during adolescence (Poletti, 2010) in a way that reflects the changing pattern of the prefrontal networks. Also relevant is the high saturation of EOD in Factor II in the 14 to 15 years old subsample, illustrating the peculiar valence that the peer group has for the adolescents (Santrock, 2008). Furthermore, a greater complexity is found in the factorial composition of EF in the 17 to 18 years old subsample, where Factor I is characterized by MD, ICDB and ODB, whereas SPDL heads Factor II and emphasizes the future aspects of behavior at that biographical period.
It is possible to label Factor I as Self-Regulation, being the ICDB component present in all three age subsamples. This component will subordinate to MD and will interact with ODB depending on the age group. Factor II could be labeled as Developmental. It hybridizes different time-changing components, especially EOD and SPDL in the two older age subsamples, respectively.
An interesting coincidence is that for the 11 to 12 years old group and for the total sample, the Self-Regulation factor conjugates MD and ICDB. It can be supposed that in spite of the typical error range of self-rating questionnaires (Spinella, 2005), the dancers starting their adolescence are able to make reasonable self-appreciations and give fair reports on components that have major implications for the total sample. What is barely a rough sketch of the later EF factorial architecture represents, from its commencement, a blooming hologram of the final EF configuration.
This coincidence perhaps bears witness to a classical conception of theatrical events that reveals a paradox between the intensity of expressive desires or Dionysian drives and disciplined, individualized assimilation of forms or Apollonian trends. Without intending to do so, the BES seems to echo a decimononic conjecture, now supported in neurosciences: Apollo could not live without Dionysius (Nietzsche, 2009).
The efficacy of the BES, one of the first instruments of its class in the arts, is high but limited because ecological validity will forever be a never resolved issue. Formerly known as the “real-life/laboratory controversy” (Kvavilashvili & Ellis, 2004), ecological validity is among the greatest neuroscientific dilemmas. So long as it is expected from neurosciences, the construction and analysis of models that cannot reproduce, with absolute fidelity, the density of what is researched for it being an impossibility, it will continue to be so. If a general formulation of this problem is wanted, there will be a permanent and unavoidable loop of tension between three elements: systems to research, the models constructed to approach them, and the social requirements of the science.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Marcello Spinella for sharing his method to evaluate executive function, Marta Sánchez, Diana Carriera, Claudia García, and Laura Domingo for their ballet counseling, and Raúl Martínez for his critical review. Special thanks to the Ballet School of Havana and the National Ballet School of Cuba.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article:
This research was partially supported by the Doctoral Co-tutorships Program of Cuban Universities and the Autonomous University of Madrid.