Abstract

Measurement of cognitive abilities across diverse ethnocultural and racial groups has a contentious history, with broad politico-legal, economic, and ethical impact. There is an abundance of literature on attention, concentration, and executive functioning. However, specific literature pertaining to traditionally under-served populations, linguistic minorities and those with low education and literacy levels are limited. This study reports data gathered in an attempt to validate a Spanish language instrument of frontal lobe functioning, called the Color Figure Mazes Test, on monolingual Spanish speaking male day laborers. The instrument was originally developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to study neurocognitive disorders cross-culturally. Correlations were run to assess convergent and divergent validity of intellectual, achievement, and neuropsychological measures with each of the six subtests of the CFM. Additionally, an independent sample t-test was run to assess performance on the CFM test based upon level of education (0-6 years and 7-10 years). Results indicated all subtests of the CFM significantly correlated with education. Additionally, CFM had significantly convergent validity with measures of attention, nonverbal reasoning, motor skills, complex nonverbal reasoning, verbal memory, executive functioning and working memory. The CFM had significant divergent validity with verbal reasoning, verbal fluency, and visual memory. Results will serve to bridge the gap between research and clinical practice for underserved and under-represented populations globally.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Dissertations (EdD) -- Psychology; Cognition -- Testing; Neuropsychological tests -- Cross-cultural studies; Cognition and culture

Date of Award

2012

School Affiliation

Graduate School of Education and Psychology

Department/Program

Psychology

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctorate

Faculty Advisor

Harrell, Shelly P.;

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