Normative neuropsychological test performance: effects of age, education, gender and ethnicity

Abstract

Normative data on neuropsychological test performance for a sample of 131 adults (ages 18-49) is presented. All subjects were native speakers of English screened for past or present medical, neurological and psychiatric disorders, including substance abuse. A broad-based battery including measures of intellectual skills, memory and learning, receptive and expressive language, auditory and visual information processing and attention, sensory processing, motor skills, and self-reported anxiety and depression was administered. Means, standard deviations and percentile rankings for all tests are reported. Regression analyses were computed to consider the concurrent influence of sociodemographic factors on all tests. Significant effects of age (M=27.1 yrs), education (M=14.6 yrs), gender (58% male), and ethnicity (62% white) were observed for relatively few test scores. Younger age at testing was associated with better continuous performance test scores. Higher education levels were associated with higher vocabulary and reading scores. Males had higher WAIS-R Information scores and faster Finger Tapping scores compared to females Ethnicity was associated with Full-scale IQ, and additional tests with a verbal component, e.g., Boston Naming Tests, and non-verbal component, e.g., Drawing Tests. We conclude that sociodemographic factors infrequently account for more than 10% of the variance for many neuropsychological test scores.

Computerized Neurocognitive Scanning: I. Methodology and Validation in Healthy People

“…A comprehensive paper and pencil neuropsychological test battery (Saykin et al 1994(Saykin et al , 1995Censits et al 1997) was administered by trained examiners. A second examiner independently rescored test data to eliminate errors and permit assessment of interrater reliability.…”

“…Similarly, the value of neuropsychological testing in assessing effects of toxin exposure has been recognized, and standards have been established (Baker et al 1985). Neuropsychological batteries usually include measures of executive functions-abstraction and mental flexibility, attention-as well as verbal and spatial memory, language, spatial processing, and sensorimotor function Golden et al 1991;Halstead 1947;Jarvis and Barth 1994;Reitan and Davison 1974;Saykin et al 1991Saykin et al , 1995. These batteries have provided a method to link domains of cognitive performance with regional brain functioning, and algorithms have been developed to test models of such linkage formally (e.g., Gur et al 1990).…”

“…Because the computerized tests were designed to tap very specific neurocognitive systems and not to mirror the traditional battery, our goal was not to replace the traditional battery for all neurocognitive domains. However, the computerized tests retain reasonable psychometric properties, and our more limited goals were to present the psychometric properties of the computerized measures and to compare the sensitivity of the computerized and traditional measures to sex differences and age effects, which are major moderating variables in studies of brain and behavior (Kimura and Harshman 1984;Kramer et al 1997;Saykin et al 1995;Zec 1995). For a neurocognitive scan to be considered sensitive to normal individual differences in these measures, it will need to show that: (1) women perform better on memory tasks (McGivern et al 1997;Ruff et al 1989), relative to men who perform better on spatial processing and motor tasks (Caplan et al 1997;Collins and Kimura 1997;Gur et al 1999;Saykin et al 1995;Silverman et al 1996); (2) age is associated with decline in performance, which is more pronounced for frontotemporal functions (abstraction, attention, memory), and more pronounced for speed than for accuracy (Earles and Kersten 1999;Laursen 1997;Park et al 1996;Sliwinski and Buschke 1999;Verhaeghen and Salthouse 1997).…”

Methylphenidate and Memory and Attention Adaptation Training for Persistent Cognitive Symptoms after Traumatic Brain Injury: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial

“…Number-Sequencing Test, and Gordon Diagnostic System Continuous Performance Test (Gordon et al, 1996). Assessments at the pre-treatment visit included the Vocabulary and Block Design subtests of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (The Psychological Corporation, 1999), Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III Digit Symbol-Coding and Digit Span subtests, Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System Sorting Test, Craft Story Memory Test (Craft et al, 1996), Brown Location Test (Brown et al, 2007), Grooved Pegboard Test (Lafayette Instrument, 1989), Finger Tapping Test (Reitan and Wolfson, 1993), and Thumb-Finger Sequencing Test (Saykin et al, 1995). The complete neuropsychological battery and the MASQ were repeated at post-treatment, with alternate test forms used where possible.…”

Hemoencephalography–A New Therapy for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Case Report

“…There are a plethora of different CPT systems, which measure different cognitive functions related to the elusive attention function clinicians hope to improve and for which none can claim to be the gold standard. The most common and best validated methods are the Conners™ (Conners, 1995;Barkley et al, 1992), the IVA™ (Edwards, 1998), the Gordon system™ (Gordon, 1983;Saykin et al, 1995;Gordon & Barkley, 1998), and the TOVA™ (Greenberg, 1993), all of which refer to normative data in scoring. While these CPTs offer the promise of quantitative results and do give a "number," they are dependent on state of arousal, effort, quality of sleep the prior night, and other factors such as environmental distractions, medication timing, and exposure to nicotine and caffeine, any of which may contribute to variance in performance.…”