Efficiency of evidence accumulation as a formal model-based measure of task-general executive functioning in...

Difficulties with executive functioning are implicated in various forms of psychopathology. However, executive functioning task performance frequently demonstrates poor test-retest reliability, questionable convergent validity, and unstable associations with clinical measures. Model-based approaches may improve measurement by providing richer information about mechanisms underlying performance. The present study systematically compared a model-based measure of task-general executive functioning, efficiency of evidence accumulation (EEA), with traditional summary metrics extracted from the same tasks in a longitudinal study of adolescents (N = 637, age = 7-19). EEA demonstrated reasonable stability across development and strong cross-task reliability. Reflecting traditional metrics, EEA related to self-reported effortful control and parent-reported attention, externalizing and total problems. EEA and one traditional metric (go/no-go standard deviation of reaction time) correlated with inhibition-related brain activation in the anterior cingulate cortex and the right superior temporal gyrus. These findings highlight the potential of EEA as a task-general, stable, biologically plausible measure of executive functioning in adolescents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).