Processing Speed in the Aging Process: Screening Criteria for the Spanish Quick Test of Cognitive Speed

Abstract

A Quick Test of Cognitive Speed was administered to 357 participants without cognitive impairment, aged 18 to 85 years, to explore the effects of age on processing speed variables in Spanish speakers and to provide normative data for the test adapted to this population. Results were consistent with previous findings: correlations between age and naming times were high and statistically significant. Linear regression indicated that cognitive processing speed on this test slows 2 to 4 sec. per decade, depending on the task. Normalized data were provided. The findings concur with several studies that have linked age-cognitive impairment with slowing processing speed. This study attempted to assess the importance of this relation, as information processing speed could be considered a measure of cognitive impairment in everyday clinical screening evaluations.

Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D predicts cognitive performance in adults

“… 34 The significant association between age, years of education, and cognitive performance is well known. 35 When controlling for age and years of education, 25(OH)D was a significant predictor of cognitive performance, in line with the previous studies in older adults. 36 …”

Dementia diagnostics in primary care : with a focus on cognitive testing

“…AQT has been shown to be affected by age to a small extent in normative studies, with longer time correlated with older age (110,111). In one study linear regression indicated a prolonged speed processing time with 2 to 4 seconds (depending on the task) per decade (112). This is concordant with the Salthouse reported age theory which proposes some age -correlated changes in visual-pattern comparison speed, fluid intelligence, and working memory (42).…”

A quick test of cognitive speed (AQT): regression-based norms for cognitively healthy 80 to 94-year olds

“…No gender effects have been reported (Nielsen & Wiig, 2006;Petrazzuoli et al, 2014;Subirana-Mirete et al, 2014;Wiig et al, 2007) but age has consistently been associated with decreasing AQT performance, as would be expected in a measure of processing speed. The effect has been described as small, in the range of 1 to 6 s/decade depending on task and sample (Nielsen & Wiig, 2006;Subirana-Mirete et al, 2014;Wiig et al, 2007).…”

“…No gender effects have been reported (Nielsen & Wiig, 2006;Petrazzuoli et al, 2014;Subirana-Mirete et al, 2014;Wiig et al, 2007) but age has consistently been associated with decreasing AQT performance, as would be expected in a measure of processing speed. The effect has been described as small, in the range of 1 to 6 s/decade depending on task and sample (Nielsen & Wiig, 2006;Subirana-Mirete et al, 2014;Wiig et al, 2007). Slowed AQT performance has been associated with cortical thinning in occipital and parieto-temporal cortical areas, reduced parieto-temporal regional cerebral blood flow and reduced connectivity in posterior networks (Jalakas et al, 2019;Park et al, 2018;Warkentin et al, 2008).…”

“…AQT performance in normal aging beyond the seventies is however sparsely examined. To our knowledge there are only three normative studies that have included individuals at or above the age of 80 (Petrazzuoli et al, 2014;Subirana-Mirete et al, 2014;Wiig et al, 2007), but in each case as part of a single, wide age-range group (above 59, 70 and 75 years, respectively), suggesting few elderly participants. This is specified in the study by Wiig et al (2007) which included only three individuals older than 85 years.…”