Monitoring Cognitive Functioning

Abstract

Assessment of cognitive functioning is an important component of telephone surveys of health. Previous cognitive telephone batteries have been limited in scope with a primary focus on dementia screening. The Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone (BTACT) assesses multiple dimensions central for effective functioning across adulthood: episodic memory, working memory, reasoning, verbal fluency, and executive function. The BTACT is the first instrument which includes measures of processing speed, reaction time, and task switching/inhibitory control for use over the telephone. We administered the battery to a national sample (N = 4,268), aged 32 to 84, from the study of Midlife in the United States and examined age, education and sex differences, reliability, and factor structure. We found good evidence for construct validity with a subsample tested in person. Implications of the findings are considered for efficient neuropsychological assessment and monitoring changes in cognitive aging, for clinical and research applications by telephone or in person.

Change in Cognitive Performance From Midlife Into Old Age: Findings from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Study

“…We expected the declines would be consistent with the cross-sectional age differences found at MIDUS 2 (Lachman et al, 2014); that is the declines would begin by 50 years of age, the amount of the decrement would become larger with age, and would be most pronounced for measures of processing speed and the least pronounced for backwards digit span. Based on the previous cross-sectional findings, we predicted there would be sex and education differences in level, but not in the amount of change for these variables.…”

“…The BTACT battery includes a combination of existing and new subtests, and is a reliable, valid measure of cognition, despite its brief length (for more information, see Lachman et al, 2014). Seven cognitive tests are included in the BTACT (Lachman et al, 2014).…”

Continuity of cognitive change across adulthood

“…A considerable amount of data exists relating cognitive performance to adult age in nationally representative samples assessed with commercial cognitive test batteries (see Salthouse, 2010a for a review), in large convenience samples tested in the laboratory (e.g., Schaie, 2013; Ronnlund, et al, 2005), over the telephone (e.g., Lachman, et al, 2014), on the internet (e.g., Hampshire, et al, 2012; Johnson et al, 2010; Logie & Maylor, 2009; Murre, et al, 2013; Sternberg et al, 2013), and with video games and personal electronic devices (e.g., Lee et al, 2013; Thompson et al, 2014). Although there is often an increase in average performance until the age decades of the 60’s or 70’s for measures of general knowledge or vocabulary (Salthouse, 2014a), the dominant pattern with measures of efficiency or effectiveness of processing at the time of assessment is negative age relations starting when people are in their 20’s or 30’s.…”

Workplace Exposures and Cognitive Function During Adulthood

“…26,27 The BTACT was designed especially to enable assessment of cognitive functioning in large community based samples. Unlike other cognitive batteries (such as the Mini Mental State Examination, 28 the BTACT aims to identify non-pathological variation in cognitive function.…”