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ERIC Number: EJ933870
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Mar
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1040-3590
EISSN: N/A
Test-Taking Behaviors in a Neurocognitive Assessment: Associations with School-Age Outcomes in a Finnish Longitudinal Follow-up
Heinonen, Johanna; Aro, Tuija; Ahonen, Timo; Poikkeus, Anna-Maija
Psychological Assessment, v23 n1 p184-192 Mar 2011
Test-taking behaviors (i.e., task focus, maintenance of attention, and cooperation) affect children's cognitive test performance, and, thus, it is critical to take test-taking behavior into account when drawing conclusions and making recommendations. Prior studies have evaluated test-taking behaviors at the end of the assessment; the present study focused on the fluctuation of cooperation and attention during a neuropsychological assessment. We examined the attention and cooperation of 5-year-old children in a test-taking situation; the associations between these aspects of their test-taking behavior and the children's concurrent neurocognitive test performance, IQ, and parent-rated behavior; and the associations with their IQ, behavioral outcomes, and academic achievement at 8 years of age. The data (for 76 boys and 63 girls) were drawn from the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia (Lyytinen et al., 2001, 2004). All the children were Caucasian and spoke Finnish as their native language. As a whole, the 5-year-old children showed high cooperation and attention, but a slight decrement in test-taking behavior toward the end of the session was rather common. Three subgroups of children with different levels of cooperation and attention were identified. Children in the subgroup with nonoptimal attention and cooperation showed decreasing neurocognitive test performance toward the end of the assessment session. They also showed more inattentive behavior 3 years later. The findings imply that the examiner's observations of waning attention and cooperation during the assessment session are highly relevant, as these provide stable and clinically meaningful information about the child's behavioral tendencies. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org/publications
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Finland
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A