The serial use of child neurocognitive tests: development versus practice effects.
When serial neurocognitive assessments are performed, 2 main factors are of importance: test-retest reliability and practice effects. With children, however, there is a third, developmental factor, which occurs as a result of maturation. Child tests recognize this factor through the provision of age-corrected scaled scores. Thus, a ready-made method for estimating the relative contribution of developmental versus practice effects is the comparison of raw (developmental and practice) and scaled (practice only) scores. Data from a pool of 507 Portuguese children enrolled in a study of dental amalgams (T. A. DeRouen, B. G. Leroux, et al., 2002; T. A. DeRouen, M. D. Martin, et al., 2006) showed that practice effects over a 5-year period varied on 8 neurocognitive tests. Simple regression equations are provided for calculating individual retest scores from initial test scores.
Slade
Peter D
PD
Expert Data Analysis for Doctors and Others, West Kirby, United Kingdom.
Townes
Brenda D
BD
Rosenbaum
Gail
G
Martins
Isabel P
IP
Luis
Henrique
H
Bernardo
Mario
M
Martin
Michael D
MD
Derouen
Timothy A
TA
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014888:Wechsler Scales; D055815:Young Adult