(EFT-E: NU) Executive Functions Test-Elementary: Normative Update

Overview

The Executive Functions Test–Elementary: Normative Update (EFT-E: NU) measures language skills that affect executive functions, such as working memory, problem solving, inferring, predicting outcomes, and shifting tasks. It can be used to identify children who have executive-functioning deficits, plan interventions, and represent executive functioning in research studies.

New Features

• The norms have been updated to reflect the demographics of the 2015 U.S. Census.
• The normative sample (N = 647) is stratified by age relative to geographic region, gender, race, and ethnicity.
• A new standard score metric has been implemented for subtests and composites (M = 10, SD = 3; M = 100, SD = 15).
• New item-analysis and item-bias studies provide convincing evidence of content-description validity.
• New reliability and validity studies were prepared, including diagnostic accuracy analyses, which are considered the most rigorous techniques for establishing a test’s validity. These analyses involve the computation of sensitivity and specificity indexes and the receiver operating characteristic/area under the curve (ROC/AUC) statistic.

Description of the Test

The test has four subtests (Attention and Immediate Memory–Verbal, Attention and Immediate Memory–Verbal and Nonverbal, Working Memory and Flexible Thinking, and Shifting) that yield scaled scores. A composite score, called the Executive Function Index, represents overall performance on the subtests. The Examiner’s Manual includes a comprehensive discussion of the test’s theoretical and research-based foundation, item development, standardization, administration and scoring procedures, norms tables, and guidelines for using and interpreting the test’s results. Reliability and validity studies were conducted with students with normal language abilities and students who had previously been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder or learning disabilities.

The average coefficient alpha ranges from .77 to .91 for the subtests and is .95 for the composite. New validity studies demonstrate the test’s ability to differentiate students with autism and learning disabilities from typically developing students. Specifically, an Executive Function Index cutoff score of 94 resulted in a sensitivity of .76, a specificity of .79, and a receiver operating characteristic/area under the curve of .89 in differentiating students with autism spectrum disorder from typically developing students. A cutoff score of 94 resulted in a sensitivity of .72, a specificity of .76, and a receiver operating characteristic/area under the curve of .84 in differentiating students with learning disabilities from typically developing students.