Developing and Validating a Big-Store Multiple Errands Test.

Kristen Antoniak,Julie Clores,Deirdre R Dawson,Emily Nalder,Danielle Jensen,Shlomit Rotenberg

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02575

Abstract

The Multiple Errands Test (MET) is an ecologically valid assessment that characterizes how executive dysfunction manifests in everyday activities. Due to the naturalistic nature of this assessment, clinicians and researchers have had to develop site-specific versions resulting in numerous published versions and making it difficult to establish standard psychometric properties. The aim of this study was to develop a standardized, community version of the MET designed to be used in large department stores meeting set criteria that would not require site specific modifications. This paper reports on the development, content validity, feasibility, and inter-rater reliability of a Big-Store MET, and the performance of healthy participants on this test. Items were selected to match previously published versions in relation to quantity and complexity. Content validity was established by having experts (n = 4) on the MET review the proposed Big-Store version and evaluate the task consistency with previously published versions. To assess feasibility of administration, and inter-rater reliability, a convenience sample of 14 community dwelling adults, self-reporting as healthy, were assessed by two trained raters. We found the Big-Store MET to be feasible to deliver (completed within 30 min, scores show variability, acceptable to participants in community environment) and inter-rater reliability to be very high (ICCs = 0.92–0.99) with the exception of frequency of strategy use. This study introduces the Big-Store MET to the literature, establishes its preliminary validity and reliability thus laying the foundation for a standardized, community-based version of the MET.

Highlights

In recognition that many department stores do not contain postal counters and/or mailboxes, a suggestion was made to change the mailing task used in many versions of the Multiple Errands Test (MET) to a task requiring the examinee to return something to customer service
An interruption task is posited to allow for observation of how participants respond to being taken off task, something that commonly happens in everyday life
This participant explained that this was done so that s/he could use the selfcheckout automated cashier in order to be more efficient and skip the long line up. The participant explained they had prioritized finishing the test in the shortest amount of time possible over other considerations. This is the first report in the literature of the Big-Store MET, a standardized, community-based version of the MET that has the potential to be used without modification in many department stores in multiple geographic locations

Summary

Introduction

Executive processes are mediated through the frontal lobes, the pre-frontal cortex, and are supported by brain networks involving frontal and parietal gray and white matter structures, as well as subcortical structures including the cerebellum (Bettcher et al, 2016). They are control functions that include self regulation, behavior sequencing and organization, response inhibition, set shifting, working memory, planning and problem solving (Barkley, 2012). The MET was developed based on the SAS as a performance-based, multiple sub-goal scheduling test that taps onto executive abilities such as planning, organizing, and managing competing demands.

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