Organizational Strategy Use in Children Aged 5–7: Standardization and Validity of the Rey Complex Figure Organizational Strategy Score (RCF-OSS)

Abstract

This study investigated psychometric properties (standardization and validity) of the Rey Complex Figure Organizational Strategy Score (RCF-OSS) in a sample of 217 healthy children aged 5–7 years. Our results showed that RCF-OSS performance changes significantly between 5 and 7 years of age. While most 5-year-olds used a local approach when copying the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF), 7-year-olds increasingly adopted a global approach. RCF-OSS performance correlated significantly, but moderately with measures of ROCF accuracy, executive functioning (fluency, working memory, reasoning), and non-executive functioning (visual-motor integration, visual attention, processing speed, numeracy). These findings seem to indicate that RCF-OSS performance reflects a range of cognitive skills at 5 to 7 years of age, including aspects of executive and non-executive functioning.

Keywords:

• Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure
• Strategy use
• Children
• Developmental trajectories
• Executive functions.