title: Reliability and construct validity of a revised Baycrest Multiple Errands Test.
abstract: Surprisingly few ecologically-valid assessments of executive function exist, but the Baycrest Multiple Errands Test (BMET) shows promise in identifying executive impairment. The goal of the present study was to develop both a revised version of the assessment (BMET-R), to improve the test's ability to discriminate between patients and healthy participants, and an alternate form of the BMET-R to permit repeat testing. Sixteen individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI) due to stroke or trauma and 16 healthy participants completed a series of neuropsychological assessments, questionnaires, the BMET-R and its alternate form (in counterbalanced order). The results of the study indicated that participants with ABI omitted more tasks, broke more rules, and were less efficient than healthy participants on both the revised BMET-R and its alternate form. Moreover, significant correlations were found between the two versions of the BMET-R for task completions, omissions, errors, rule breaks and inefficiencies but few significant correlations were observed between the BMET-R versions and measures of executive dysfunction in everyday life. These results indicate that the two versions of the BMET-R are able to dissociate the performance of participants with ABI from that of healthy participants. However, despite overlaps in performance and correlations between the two versions of the BMET-R, they did not identically assess executive deficits. This suggests that caution should be used when constructing and validating alternate versions of performance-based assessments.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , University of Tennessee at Chattanooga , Chattanooga , USA.
authors.forename: Amanda J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: b Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Hospital , Toronto , Canada.|d Departments of Psychiatry & Psychology , University of Toronto , Toronto , Canada.
authors.forename: Nicole D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: b Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Hospital , Toronto , Canada.|c Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy , University of Toronto , Toronto , Canada.|e March of Dimes, Paul J.J. Martin Early Career Professor , University of Toronto , Toronto , Canada.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nalder
authors.affiliation: b Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Hospital , Toronto , Canada.
authors.forename: Sidrah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Arshad
authors.affiliation: b Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Hospital , Toronto , Canada.|c Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy , University of Toronto , Toronto , Canada.
authors.forename: Deirdre R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Dawson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: Cognition; Executive function; Multiple Errands Test; Stroke; Traumatic brain injury