A longitudinal factor analytic study of children's neurocognitive abilities.

Full Abstract

The neurocognitive abilities of 503 Portuguese children aged 8-11.9 years at onset of the study were assessed annually for 8 years in 3 functional domains: memory, motor and visual motor functions, and attention. A series of exploratory principal axis factor analyses, with varimax rotation, revealed seven factors: Divided Attention, Selective Attention, Verbal Learning and Recall, Visual Learning and Recall, Motor Speed, Visual-Motor Speed, and Working Memory. The same factors emerged across the 8-year period, suggesting that children's neurocognitive structures are articulated and stable throughout this period of development. From these exploratory analyses a small set of cost-effective neuropsychological tests were found to characterize children's functioning consistently throughout the 8-year period.

Author information

Author/s: Townes, Brenda D (BD); Rosenbaum, Gail (G); Martin, Michael D (MD); Martins, Isabel P (IP); Luis, Henrique (H); Bernardo, Mario (M);

Affiliation: University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA. btownes(-atsign-)u.washington.edu

Grants: U01 DE11894 (Agency:NIDCR NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

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

Journal: The International journal of neuroscience (Int J Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jul; vol 118 (issue 7) : pp 1009-23

Dates: Created 2008/06/23; Completed 2008/09/17;

PMID: 18569157, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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