title: The serial use of child neurocognitive tests: development versus practice effects.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Expert Data Analysis for Doctors and Others, West Kirby, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Peter D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Slade
authors.forename: Brenda D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Townes
authors.forename: Gail
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rosenbaum
authors.forename: Isabel P
authors.initials: IP
authors.lastname: Martins
authors.forename: Henrique
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Luis
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bernardo
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Timothy A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Derouen
mesh_terms: 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