Executive Functioning Flashcards
7 cards from real MOCA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Executive Functioning flashcards as text
On the MoCA Trail Making B task, a patient connects numbers and letters in this order: 1-A-2-B-3-C. What cognitive ability does this primarily test?
Answer: Cognitive set-shifting and mental flexibility
Trail Making B requires the patient to alternate between number and letter sequences, directly assessing cognitive set-shifting, a core executive function.
A patient scores 0 on the MoCA phonemic fluency task (words beginning with 'F'). Which threshold determines full credit?
Answer: 11 or more words
The MoCA awards 1 point for generating 11 or more words beginning with the letter 'F' within 60 seconds.
Which of the following best explains why executive functioning deficits appear early in Alzheimer's disease progression?
Answer: Prefrontal cortex circuits are disrupted by early amyloid pathology
Early amyloid accumulation in prefrontal and associated circuits disrupts executive networks before global cognitive decline becomes apparent.
During the MoCA abstraction task, a patient is asked how a train and a bicycle are alike. The answer 'they both have wheels' receives what score?
Answer: 0 points — too concrete or superficial
Responses citing a concrete physical feature (wheels) rather than an abstract category (means of transportation/vehicles) receive 0 points on the MoCA abstraction task.
A clinician notices a patient can recall stored information but struggles to initiate problem-solving strategies spontaneously. This pattern most suggests impairment in which executive subdomain?
Answer: Initiation and generativity
Difficulty spontaneously initiating strategies while retrieval remains intact points to impaired initiation and generativity, a key executive subdomain.
Which MoCA domain score would be most directly affected if a patient cannot hold a sequence of numbers in mind while performing a mental operation?
Answer: Attention/executive domain
Holding and manipulating information in mind simultaneously is working memory, assessed within the MoCA's attention and executive functioning domain.
On the MoCA, a patient correctly taps only when hearing the letter 'A' in a random letter sequence read aloud. This task primarily assesses which executive function?
Answer: Response inhibition and sustained attention
The vigilance task requires sustained attention and inhibiting the tap response for all non-target letters, testing response inhibition and sustained attention.