Exploring age-related decline on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.

Full Abstract

It is well established that performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) tends to decline with advanced age, but the reason for this decline has not been established. The objective of the present study was to clarify this question using a qualitative approach to the task. The WCST was administered to 19 older adults and 25 younger participants. In addition to standard testing procedures, all participants were asked to verbalize their response strategy when placing each card. Results of this procedure implicate poor set shifting and set maintenance, consistent with reduced efficiency of feedback utilization, as the primary cause for age-related decline on the WCST.

Author information

Author/s: Ashendorf, Lee (L); McCaffrey, Robert J (RJ);

Affiliation: Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Bedford, MA, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: The Clinical neuropsychologist (Clin Neuropsychol), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Mar; vol 22 (issue 2) : pp 262-72

Dates: Created 2008/07/01; Completed 2008/08/13;

PMID: 17853147, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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