Does Rey Complex Figure copy performance measure executive function in children?

The Rey Complex Figure Task (RCFT) is currently utilized with both adult and child clinical populations. In addition to the measurement of visual-constructional ability and memory, the RCFT has also been suggested as a measure of executive function (EF), specifically requiring planning and organizing skills. The purpose of the current study was to determine the extent to which the RCFT Copy task, using the scoring system developed by Meyers and Meyers (1995), tapped components of EF. The participants in this study were 108 children (M(age) = 12.61 years; SD = 2.27) who were administered a battery of neuropsychological measures including the RCFT Copy, NEPSY Tower and Arrows subtests, Clock Face Drawing, and a measure of verbal fluency, in addition to other measures of visual-motor integration and cognitive ability. Overall, in this clinically mixed population, scores on the RCFT Copy correlated significantly only with overall cognitive ability, Block Design, and visual-motor integration scores. Implications of these results are discussed.