Online Self-Administered Cognitive Testing Using the Amsterdam Cognition Scan: Establishing Psychometric Properties and Normative Data (Preprint)

Abstract

BackgroundOnline tests enable efficient self-administered assessments and consequently facilitate large-scale data collection for many fields of research. The Amsterdam Cognition Scan (ACS) is a new online neuropsychological test battery which measures a broad variety of cognitive functions. ObjectiveThe aims of the present study were to evaluate the psychometric properties of the ACS and to establish regression-based normative data. MethodsThe ACS was self-administrated twice from home -with an interval of 6 weeks -by 248 healthy Dutch speaking adults aged 18 to 81 years. ResultsTest-retest reliability was moderate to high and comparable to that of equivalent traditional tests (intraclass correlation coefficients: .45 to .80, and .83 for the ACS total score). Multiple regression analyses indicated that 1) participants' age negatively influenced all (12) cognitive measures; 2) gender was associated with performance on 6 measures; and 3) education level was positively associated with performance on 4 measures. In addition, we observed an age-and gender-specific influence of computer skills on cognitive performance. Demographic characteristics that proved to influence ACS test performance were included in regression-based predictive formulas to establish demographically adjusted normative data. ConclusionsThe ACS is a promising new online tool to efficiently assess cognitive functioning for research purposes.Results from a healthy adult sample indicate that the ACS has high usability and can give reliable measures of various generic cognitive ability areas. For repeated measurements, computer configuration should be consistent. Combined with these psychometric properties, our normative data allow for initial interpretation of ACS performances.