Evidence and methodology
This page sets out what the Aperio Workplace Profile measures, how it is scored, the frameworks it draws on, and where its validation currently stands. It was designed by Helen Villiers (LLB, PG Cert, PG Dip, MA (Couns)), drawing on the evidence set out below.
What it measures
The Workplace Profile is a 190-item self-report questionnaire that most people complete in 25 to 35 minutes. It measures nine areas of executive functioning: working memory, response inhibition, emotional regulation, time perception, task initiation, cognitive flexibility, sustained attention, organisation and planning, and feedback and self-advocacy. Alongside these it measures the Big Five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism), interpreted for the workplace.
With the person's explicit consent, it also includes optional, non-diagnostic pattern screening covering autistic-spectrum and dyslexia-related domains (sensory processing, social communication, routine and pattern orientation, and reading and writing processing). Patterns relevant to ADHD are reflected in the executive-function profile rather than in a separate scale.
How it is scored
Responses are given on a seven-point scale, with reverse-keyed items included to reduce response bias. Each executive-function area is scored on three separate axes rather than collapsed into a single number: impact (the level of day-to-day difficulty), strength, and compensation (the effort a person puts in to manage that area). This matters because a person can be highly capable in an area while spending considerable hidden effort to stay that way. Personality traits and any optional screening domains are scored and banded into levels. Scoring is performed server-side from the item responses.
The frameworks it draws on
The instrument is informed by several established models rather than derived from a single one. The executive-function domains draw on the models of Barkley, Brown, and Dawson and Guare. The personality measure uses the Five Factor model of Costa and McCrae. The optional autism-related domains draw on the camouflaging and female-phenotype literature, including the work of Hull and colleagues and Lai and colleagues. The full reference list is below. “Informed by” means the constructs and item design draw on this research; it does not mean Aperio is any of these published instruments, nor that their published validity data transfers to it.
Validation and development
Every scale in the Workplace Profile is drawn directly from the established, peer-reviewed frameworks set out above. The instrument is in active development, and we are building its formal psychometric evidence, including reliability, validity and population norms. We publish each of these here as it is completed.
The Workplace Profile is a structured, evidence-informed self-report. It gives a person and their manager a shared, practical language for how they work, and it is designed to support human judgement, not to replace it. If you are assessing Aperio for your organisation and want to discuss its evidence base in detail, please get in touch.
How to read the output
The profile is not a diagnosis, and not a measure of ability or of suitability for a role. There are no good or bad scores. Its purpose is to support human judgement about working conditions and adjustments. It is not a substitute for a clinical assessment or an occupational health assessment, and it should not be used on its own to make recruitment, promotion, disciplinary or other employment decisions.
References
The research and clinical frameworks the instrument draws on.
Aron, A. R., Robbins, T. W., & Poldrack, R. A. (2004). Inhibition and the right inferior frontal cortex. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(4), 170-177.
Barkley, R. A. (2001). The executive functions and self-regulation: An evolutionary neuropsychological perspective. Neuropsychology Review, 11(1), 1-29.
Barkley, R. A. (2012). Executive Functions: What They Are, How They Work, and Why They Evolved. Guilford Press.
Barkley, R. A. (2015). Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Handbook for Diagnosis and Treatment (4th ed.). Guilford Press.
Brown, T. E. (2005). Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults. Yale University Press.
Carson, S. H., Peterson, J. B., & Higgins, D. M. (2003). Decreased latent inhibition is associated with increased creative achievement in high-functioning individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(3), 499-506.
Castellanos, F. X., & Tannock, R. (2002). Neuroscience of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: The search for endophenotypes. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 3(8), 617-628.
Cepeda, N. J., Kramer, A. F., & Gonzalez de Sather, J. C. M. (2001). Changes in executive control across the life span. Developmental Psychology, 37(5), 715-730.
Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). NEO-PI-R Professional Manual. Psychological Assessment Resources.
Downey, G., & Feldman, S. I. (1996). Implications of rejection sensitivity for intimate relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(6), 1327-1343.
Finstad, K. (2010). Response interpolation and scale sensitivity: Evidence against 5-point scales. Journal of Usability Studies, 5(3), 104-110.
Frost, R. O., Marten, P., Lahart, C., & Rosenblate, R. (1990). The dimensions of perfectionism. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 14(5), 449-468.
Huang-Pollock, C. L., Karalunas, S. L., Tam, H., & Moore, A. N. (2012). Evaluating vigilance deficits in ADHD: A meta-analysis of CPT performance. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 121(1), 360-371.
Hull, L., Petrides, K. V., & Mandy, W. (2020). The female autism phenotype and camouflaging: A narrative review. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 7, 306-317.
Hupfeld, K. E., Abagis, T. R., & Shah, P. (2019). Living in the zone: Hyperfocus in adult ADHD. ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders, 11, 191-208.
Jack, D. C., & Dill, D. (1992). The Silencing the Self Scale: Schemas of intimacy associated with depression in women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 16(1), 97-106.
Joshi, A., Kale, S., Chandel, S., & Pal, D. K. (2015). Likert scale: Explored and explained. British Journal of Applied Science and Technology, 7(4), 396-403.
Lai, M. C., Lombardo, M. V., Auyeung, B., Chakrabarti, B., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2015). Sex/gender differences and autism: Setting the scene for future research. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 54(1), 11-24.
NICE (2018). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Diagnosis and management. NICE Guideline NG87.
Nigg, J. T. (2001). Is ADHD a disinhibitory disorder? Psychological Bulletin, 127(5), 571-598.
Safren, S. A., Otto, M. W., Sprich, S., Winett, C. L., Wilens, T. E., & Biederman, J. (2005). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for ADHD in medication-treated adults with continued symptoms. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43(7), 831-842.
Sergeant, J. A. (2005). Modeling attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A critical appraisal of the cognitive-energetic model. Biological Psychiatry, 57(11), 1248-1255.
Shaw, P., Stringaris, A., Nigg, J., & Leibenluft, E. (2014). Emotion dysregulation in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 171(3), 276-293.
Toplak, M. E., Dockstader, C., & Tannock, R. (2006). Temporal information processing in ADHD: Findings to date and new methods. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 151(1), 15-29.
Volkow, N. D., Wang, G. J., Newcorn, J. H., Kollins, S. H., Wigal, T. L., Telang, F., ... & Swanson, J. M. (2011). Motivation deficit in ADHD is associated with dysfunction of the dopamine reward pathway. Molecular Psychiatry, 16(11), 1147-1154.
White, H. A., & Shah, P. (2006). Uninhibited imaginations: Creativity in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Personality and Individual Differences, 40(6), 1121-1131.
White, H. A., & Shah, P. (2011). Creative style and achievement in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(5), 673-677.
Wiklund, J., Patzelt, H., & Dimov, D. (2016). Entrepreneurship and psychological disorders: How ADHD can be productively harnessed. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 6, 14-20.
Young, S., Adamo, N., Asgeirsdottir, B. B., Branney, P., Beckett, M., Colley, W., ... & Woodhouse, E. (2020). Females with ADHD: An expert consensus statement. BMC Psychiatry, 20, 404.