Initial psychometric evidence of the JEFE application for the assessment of executive functions in primary school children in the Dominican Republic.
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examined the psychometric properties of the “Juego de Evaluación de las Funciones Ejecutivas” (JEFE), a digital, self-administered Android application designed to assess inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility in primary school children. JEFE integrates three established paradigms: a Go/No-Go task, a N-back task, and a Card Sorting task. The sample included 1,166 third- and fourth-grade students from public and private schools across four educational regions of the Dominican Republic. Descriptive analyses were conducted to examine distributional properties of task performance indicators. Internal consistency was estimated using McDonald’s omega, Cronbach’s alpha, and split-half reliability. Known-groups validity was assessed through comparisons between third- and fourth-grade students. Results showed adequate internal consistency across all tasks, with the highest reliability observed for inhibition (ω = .886; α = .886; split-half = .898), followed by working memory (ω = .803; α = .803; split-half = .791) and cognitive flexibility (ω = .770; α = .770; split-half = .797). Group comparisons indicated small but significant grade-level differences in Go trial reaction time (U = 190,037; p < .001; r_rb = -.126), No-Go accuracy (U = 156,994; p = .046; r_rb = .066), and regular-trial accuracy in the cognitive flexibility task (U = 156,029; p = .026; r_rb = .075), whereas working memory showed no significant differences between grades. These results provide preliminary evidence of validity and reliability of JEFE app for assessing executive functions in school-aged children, particularly in ecological educational settings.
Language: English
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7203450818