Cancellation test performance in African American, Hispanic, and White elderly.
Shape and letter cancellation test performance was investigated among large samples of African American, Hispanic, and White non-demented elders. Ethnic minority elders took significantly longer to complete both tasks compared to Whites. An index of task efficiency, which simultaneously measures time and accuracy, suggested that slower time by minority elders was not related to a measurable effort to achieve greater accuracy. The frequency of commission errors was greater in our sample than in previous reports, especially among ethnic minority elders. Although significant differences were observed between the ethnic groups when matched for years of education, equating for literacy level eliminated all performance differences between African Americans and Whites on both cancellation tasks.
Byrd
Desiree A
DA
G. H. Sergievsky Center, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Touradji
Pegah
P
Tang
Ming-Xin
MX
Manly
Jennifer J
JJ
D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004522:Educational Status; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception