title: Estimating retest effects in longitudinal assessments of cognitive functioning in adults between 18 and 60 years of age.
abstract: Several analyses were conducted on data from samples of adults between 18 and 58 years of age who completed the same cognitive tests after an interval ranging from less than 1 week to 35 years. Because the retest interval varied across individuals, it was possible to determine the length of time needed before the gains associated with a retest decreased to 0 and to obtain simultaneous estimates of the magnitude of effects associated with increased age and a prior assessment. The results indicated that for adults within this age range, 7 or more years were needed before positive retest effects were no longer detectable. Age effects in longitudinal comparisons could be interpreted in terms of large positive effects associated with a prior assessment and negative effects associated with age that were comparable in magnitude to those observed in cross-sectional comparisons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4400, USA. salthouse@virginia.edu
authors.forename: Timothy A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Salthouse
authors.forename: David H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Schroeder
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ferrer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001076:Aptitude; D015982:Bias; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013223:Statistics as Topic