Short-term variability in cognitive performance and the calibration of longitudinal change.

Full Abstract

Recent studies have documented that normal adults exhibit considerable variability in cognitive performance from one occasion to another. We investigated this phenomenon in a study in which 143 adults ranging from 18 to 97 years of age performed different versions of 13 cognitive tests in three separate sessions. Substantial within-person variability was apparent across 13 different cognitive variables, and there were also large individual differences in the magnitude of within-person variability. Because people differ in the amount of short-term variability, we propose that this variability might provide a meaningful basis for calibrating change in longitudinal research. Correlations among the measures of within-person variability were very low, even after we adjusted for reliability, and there was little evidence that increased age was associated with a larger amount of within-person variability.

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Author information

Author/s: Salthouse, Timothy A (TA); Nesselroade, John R (JR); Berish, Diane E (DE);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Virginia Charlottesville, USA.

Grants: R01 AG 19627 (Agency:NIA NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences (J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-May; vol 61 (issue 3) : pp P144-51

Dates: Created 2006/05/03; Completed 2006/06/14; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 16670183, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging - psychology
Analysis of Variance
Aptitude
Cognition
Female
Humans

Humans
Individuality
Intelligence
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Middle Aged
Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data
Psychometrics - statistics & numerical data
Reference Values
Reproducibility of Results

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