Measures and References: References: Cognitive Flexibility

Return to References: Cognitive Flexibility factor page.

Measures

Numerous measures exist to gain a full picture of a student's learning strengths and challenges. Following are examples of measures used to assess this Learner Factor. These measures should be administered and interpreted by experienced professionals.

Trail Making Test (part B): (Bowie & Harvey, 2006): Measures Cognitive Flexibility by requiring learners to connect/draw a line between labeled points on a sheet of paper according to a rule of alternating between numbers and letters (e.g. 1-> A->2->B->3->C…).

References

Anderson, J. R., Carroll, I., Azcarate-Peril, M. A., Rochette, A. D., Heinberg, L. J., Peat, C., ... & Gunstad, J. (2017). A preliminary examination of gut microbiota, sleep, and cognitive flexibility in healthy older adults. Sleep Medicine, 38, 104-107.

Bowie, C., Harvey, P. D. (2006). Administration and interpretation of Trail Making Test. Nature Protocols, 1(5), 2277–2281.

Chen, E., & Miller, G. E. (2012). “Shift-and-Persist” strategies: Why low socioeconomic status isn't always bad for health. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(2), 135–158.

Dawson, D. L., & Golijani-Moghaddam, N. (2020). The COVID-19: Psychological flexibility, coping, mental health, and wellbeing in the UK during the pandemic. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 17, 126–134.

Dommes, A., Chevalier, A., & Lia, S. (2011). The role of cognitive flexibility and vocabulary abilities of younger and older users in searching for information on the web. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 25(5), 717-726.

Dreisbach, G., & Goschke, T. (2004). How positive affect modulates cognitive control: Reduced perseveration at the cost of increased distractibility. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 30(2), 343–353.

Dreu, C. K. D., Nijstad, B. A., & Baas, M. (2011). Behavioral activation links to creativity because of increased cognitive flexibility. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2(1), 72-80.

Gopnik, A., O'Grady, S., Lucas, C. G., Griffiths, T. L., Wente, A., Bridgers, S., ... & Dahl, R. E. (2017). Changes in cognitive flexibility and hypothesis search across human life history from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(30), 7892-7899.

Hodzik, S., & Lemaire, P. (2011). Inhibition and shifting capacities mediate adults' age-related differences in strategy selection and repertoire. Acta Psychologica, 137(3), 335–344.

Ihle, A., Mons, U., Perna, L., Oris, M., Fagot, D., Gabriel, R., & Kliegel, M. (2016). The relation of obesity to performance in verbal abilities, processing speed, and cognitive flexibility in old age: The role of cognitive reserve. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 42(1-2), 117-126.

Kashdan, T. B., & Rottenberg, J. (2010). Psychological flexibility as a fundamental aspect of health. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(4), 865–878.

Kercood, S., Lineweaver, T. T., Frank, C. C., & Fromm, E. D. (2017). Cognitive flexibility and its relationship to academic achievement and career choice of college students with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 30(4), 329-344.

Konig, Cornelius, J., Buhner, M., & Murling, G. (2005). Working memory, fluid intelligence, and attention are predictors of multitasking performance, but polychronocity and extraversion are not. Human Performance, 18(3), 243–266.

Masley, S., Roetzheim, R., & Gualtieri, T. (2009). Aerobic exercise enhances cognitive flexibility. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 16(2), 186-193.

Ophir, E., Nass, C., & Wagner, A. D. (2009). Cognitive control in media multitaskers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(37), 15583-15587.

Prior, A., & Gollan, T. H. (2011). Good language-switchers are good task-switchers: Evidence from Spanish-English and Mandarin-English bilinguals. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 17(4), 682–691.

Rohlf, H., Jucksch, V., Gawrilow, C., Huss, M., Hein, J., Lehmkuhl, U., & Salbach-Andrae, H. (2012). Set shifting and working memory in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Neural Transmission, 119(1), 95-106.

Shields, G. S., Trainor, B. C., Lam, J. C., & Yonelinas, A. P. (2016). Acute stress impairs cognitive flexibility in men, not women. Stress, 19(5), 542-546.