Wisconsin+Card+Sorting+Task

Used primarily to assess perseveration and abstract thinking, the WCST is also considered a measure of executive function because of its reported sensitivity to frontal lobe dysfunction. As such, the WCST allows you to assess your client’s strategic planning; organized searching; and ability to utilize environmental feedback to shift cognitive sets, direct behavior toward achieving a goal, and modulate impulsive responding. =Features and benefits = =Test structure = Four stimulus cards incorporate three stimulus parameters (color, form, and number). Respondents are required to sort numbered response cards according to different principles and to alter their approach during test administration. To complete the task, clients should have normal or corrected vision and hearing sufficient to adequately comprehend the instructions and to visually discriminate the stimulus parameters.
 * Completion of the WCST requires the ability to develop and maintain an appropriate problem-solving strategy across changing stimulus conditions in order to achieve a future goal.
 * Unlike other measures of abstraction, the WCST provides objective measures of overall success and identifies particular sources of difficulty on the task (e.g., inefficient initial conceptualization, perseveration, failure to maintain a cognitive set, inefficient learning across stages of the test).
 * When used with more comprehensive ability testing, the WCST is helpful in discriminating frontal from nonfrontal lesions.

=Significance = Patients with orbital damage seem to have relatively little difficulty performing this category sorting task. Similarly, patients with right frontal damage, although they show a tendency to make perseverative type errors (i.e. persisting in a choice pattern which is clearly indicated as incorrect), perform significantly better than those with left frontal lobe damage. Thus overall, patients with left medial and convexity lesions perform most poorly, and have the greatest degree of difficulty thinking in a flexible manner or developing alternative response strategies.