Real-life problem solving and executive function in relation to the frontal lobes

Clinical accounts of the behaviour of people with frontal lobe lesions suggest that they often show marked difficulties in aspects of problem-solving and decision-making in their daily lives. Despite these real-life problems, studies have shown that some of these patients perform well on laboratory tests of executive function. This has led to a drive to create laboratory measures with greater ecological validity than those commonly used in neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation, which differ from real-life problem situations in a number of ways, including the amount of structure and feedback provided by the test. In addition, real-life problems are likely to draw more heavily than abstract executive measures on factors such as interpersonal comprehension and judgement, and previous experience. This thesis describes a series of experimental studies designed to address these issues. The aim was to examine real-life problem-solving in participants with frontal lobe involvement, and the measures in each study were intended to have greater ecological validity than most standardised measures. The first study showed that participants with anterior lesions were impaired in a range of aspects of real-life problem-solving, and it was postulated that a range of important factors contributed to their deficits, including executive impairment, poor selection of courses of action, deficits in understanding interpersonal processes, and an inability to apply their previous experience to the task. The subsequent studies examined these factors further, both by manipulating the problem-solving measures, and by studying groups of participants with different types of frontal lobe involvement, who also differed in their life experience. Overall, it was concluded that these factors were all relevant to aspects of real-life problem-solving performance. The results are considered in the light of current models of frontal lobe functioning, and the implications of the findings are discussed