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Understanding design fluency: Motor and executive contributions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2009

YANA SUCHY ,
MATTHEW L. KRAYBILL  and
JENNIFER C. GIDLEY LARSON
YANA SUCHY*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
MATTHEW L. KRAYBILL
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
JENNIFER C. GIDLEY LARSON
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
*
*Correspondence and reprint requests to: Yana Suchy, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 S. 1530 E., Rm. 502, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0251. E-mail: yana.suchy@psych.utah.edu
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Abstract

Design Fluency (DF) is typically assumed to assess planning, cognitive flexibility, and fluency in generation of visual patterns, above and beyond contributions from motor speed (Delis, Kaplan, & Kramer, 2001; Ruff, 1998). The present study examined these assumptions, as little construct validation research has been done in the past. Sixty one community-dwelling elderly participants were administered the DF, Trail Making, and Letter Fluency tests from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS), as well as electronically administered measures of motor planning and motor sequence fluency. Hierarchical regressions were used to parse out unique variance contributions to DF performance. The results showed that generation of novel designs (i.e., the first two trials on the D-KEFS DF) relied primarily on motor planning, the ability to generate novel motor actions, and, to a lesser extent, speed of drawing with a writing implement. In contrast, generation of unique designs while switching (i.e., the third trial on the D-KEFS DF) relied primarily on visual scanning and perhaps visual-attentional resources. These findings highlight the wisdom of interpreting the switching trial of the D-KEFS DF separately. Interestingly, cognitive flexibility did not contribute to performance on any of the three D-KEFS DF trials. (JINS, 2010, 16, 26–37.)

Keywords

Design fluencyFigural fluencyMotor planningCognitive flexibilityExecutive functionElectronic testsMotor actionMotor speedVisual scanningConstruct validation
Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 26 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2009

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