title: Assessing Planning Ability Across the Adult Life Span: Population-Representative and Age-Adjusted Reliability Estimates for the Tower of London (TOL-F).
abstract: Planning ahead the consequences of future actions is a prototypical executive function. In clinical and experimental neuropsychology, disc-transfer tasks like the Tower of London (TOL) are commonly used for the assessment of planning ability. Previous psychometric evaluations have, however, yielded a poor reliability of measuring planning performance with the TOL. Based on theory-grounded task analyses and a systematic problem selection, the computerized TOL-Freiburg version (TOL-F) was developed to improve the task's psychometric properties for diagnostic applications. Here, we report reliability estimates for the TOL-F from two large samples collected in Mainz, Germany (n = 3,770; 40-80 years) and in Vienna, Austria (n = 830; 16-84 years). Results show that planning accuracy on the TOL-F possesses an adequate internal consistency and split-half reliability (>0.7) that are stable across the adult life span while the TOL-F covers a broad range of graded difficulty even in healthy adults, making it suitable for both research and clinical application.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany BrainLinks-BrainTools Cluster of Excellence, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany christoph.kaller@uniklinik-freiburg.de.
authors.forename: Christoph P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Kaller
authors.affiliation: SCHUHFRIED GmbH, Mödling, Austria.
authors.forename: Rudolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Debelak
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany Freiburg Brain Imaging Center, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany BrainLinks-BrainTools Cluster of Excellence, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany Biological and Personality Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Lena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Köstering
authors.affiliation: SCHUHFRIED GmbH, Mödling, Austria.
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Egle
authors.affiliation: Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rahm
authors.affiliation: Preventive Cardiology and Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine II, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK), partner site Hamburg/Kiel/Lübeck, Hamburg, Germany German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK), partner site RhineMain, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Philipp S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Wild
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Blettner
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Manfred E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Beutel
authors.affiliation: Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Josef M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Unterrainer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards*; D011340:Problem Solving; D011594:Psychometrics; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Planning; Problem solving; Reliability; TOL-F; Tower of London