title: Convergent validity and effect of instruction modification on the groton maze learning test: a new measure of spatial working memory and error monitoring.
abstract: This study examined the convergent validity and effect of instruction modification on the Groton Maze Learning Test (GMLT), a computerized hidden maze learning test. Performance on the GMLT was compared to performance on widely used pencil-and-paper and computerized measures of working memory, route selection, and planning/problem solving in a sample of healthy young adults. Performance on GMLT outcome measures correlated with performance on comparator measures of working memory, route selection, and planning (r = 0.31-0.44). Instruction modification (withholding simple instructions) increased the number of rule-break errors on the GMLT (Cohen's d = 0.59). These results provide support for the convergent validity of the GMLT in assessing working memory, route selection, and planning/problem solving, and suggest that a simple instructional modification may yield a novel measure of executive function: feedback monitoring and procedural rule acquisition and application.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA. rhpietrzak@gmail.com
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Pietrzak
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maruff
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Snyder
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult