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The Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS): a method of assessing executive function in children
Philip David Zelazo
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3, Canada. Correspondence should be addressed to P.D.Z. ([email protected]).
Published online 27 June; corrected after print 31 August 2006; doi: 10.1038/nprot.2006.46
The dimensional change card sort (DCCS) is an easily administered and widely used measure of executive function that is suitable for use with participants across a wide range of ages. In the standard version, children are required to sort a series of bivalent test cards, first according to one dimension (e.g., color), and then according to the other (e.g., shape). Most 3-year-olds perseverate during the post-switch phase, exhibiting a pattern of inflexibility similar to that seen in patients with prefrontal cortical damage. By 5 years of age, most children switch when instructed to do so. Performance on the DCCS provides an index of the development of executive function, and it is impaired in children with disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism. We describe the protocol for the standard version (duration = 5 min) and the more challenging border version (duration = 5 min), which may be used with children as old as 7 years.
Play the color game:If its red, it goes here; but if its blue, it goes there. Heres a red one. Where does it go?
2006 Nature Publishing Group http://www.nature.com/natureprotocols
INTRODUCTION
The DCCS13 is an easily administered and widely used (see refs. 410) measure of executive function that is suitable for use across the lifespan. In the standard version of this task (Fig. 1), which is usually used with healthy children between the ages of 3 and 5 years, children are shown two target cards (e.g., a blue rabbit and a red boat) and asked to sort a series of bivalent test cards (e.g., red rabbits and blue boats) according to one dimension (e.g., color). During a post-switch phase, they are told to sort the same types of test cards according to the other dimension (e.g., shape). Regardless of which dimension is presented first, the majority of normal 3-year-olds perseverate during the post-switch phase of the standard version by continuing to sort test cards by the first dimension....