Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33754321›Full record

ReviewBehavior research methods2021

Considerations for using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test to assess cognitive flexibility.

Stephanie Miles, Caitlin A Howlett, Carolyn Berryman, Maja Nedeljkovic, G Lorimer Moseley, Andrea Phillipou

Abstract readReview
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Behavior research methods, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 95 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
95citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

95 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Article
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  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Cognitive Framework for Aircraft Piloting: A Core Cognition Set.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026
    Review
  10. Article
  11. Article
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  14. Differential Coding of Associative Memory Information in the Macaque Lateral Prefrontal Cortex and Hippocampus.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Article
  18. Misophonia symptom severity is linked to impaired flexibility and heightened rumination.British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953) · 2026
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

35 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Stephanie MilesCentre for Mental Health, Swinburne University of Technology, PO Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia. smiles@swin.edu.au.ORCID 0000-0001-8190-894X
Caitlin A HowlettInnovation, Implementation & Clinical Translation (IIMPACT) in Health, Allied Health and Human Performance, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-4584-8641
Carolyn BerrymanBrain Stimulation, Imaging and Cognition Research Group, School of Medicine, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-5316-0847
Maja NedeljkovicCentre for Mental Health, Swinburne University of Technology, PO Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-0963-0335
G Lorimer MoseleyInnovation, Implementation & Clinical Translation (IIMPACT) in Health, Allied Health and Human Performance, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-3750-4945
Andrea PhillipouCentre for Mental Health, Swinburne University of Technology, PO Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-1009-6619

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is a popular neurocognitive task used to assess cognitive flexibility, and aspects of executive functioning more broadly, in research and clinical practice. Despite its widespread use and the development of an updated WCST manual in 1993, confusion remains in the literature about how to score the WCST, and importantly, how to interpret the outcome variables as indicators of cognitive flexibility. This critical review provides an overview of the changes in the WCST, how existing scoring methods of the task differ, the key terminology and how these relate to the assessment of cognitive flexibility, and issues with the use of the WCST across the literature. In particular, this review focuses on the confusion between the terms 'perseverative responses' and 'perseverative errors' and the inconsistent scoring of these variables. To our knowledge, this critical review is the first of its kind to focus on the inherent issues surrounding the WCST when used as an assessment of cognitive flexibility. We provide recommendations to overcome these and other issues when using the WCST in future research and clinical practice.

Indexed as

Executive FunctionWisconsin Card Sorting TestCognitionHumansNeuropsychological TestsCognitive flexibilityExecutive functionNeurocognitive assessmentNeurocognitive measuresSet-shiftingWCST

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.