Retest effects in working memory capacity tests: A meta-analysis

Abstract

The repeated administration of working memory capacity tests is common in clinical and research settings. For cognitive ability tests and different neuropsychological tests, meta-analyses have shown that they are prone to retest effects, which have to be accounted for when interpreting retest scores. Using a multilevel approach, this meta-analysis aims at showing the reproducibility of retest effects in working memory capacity tests for up to seven test administrations, and examines the impact of the length of the test-retest interval, test modality, equivalence of test forms and participant age on the size of retest effects. Furthermore, it is assessed whether the size of retest effects depends on the test paradigm. An extensive literature search revealed 234 effect sizes from 95 samples and 68 studies, in which healthy participants between 12 and 70 years repeatedly performed a working memory capacity test. Results yield a weighted average of g = 0.28 for retest effects from the first to the second test administration, and a significant increase in effect sizes was observed up to the fourth test administration. The length of the test-retest interval and publication year were found to moderate the size of retest effects. Retest effects differed between the paradigms of working memory capacity tests. These findings call for the development and use of appropriate experimental or statistical methods to address retest effects in working memory capacity tests.

Growth hormone treatment and health‐related quality of life in children and adolescents: A national, prospective, one‐year controlled study

“…Thus, it is very obvious that there is an observational effect confounding attempts to try to ascertain the absolute effect of GHT on HRQOL, particularly as the control group showed the greatest improvement in the PedsQL. We conclude that the improvement in HRQOL scores in the treated groups and controls seems to be a familiarity with assessment of measures effect, the retest effect, which has been regularly described in the psychological literature when psychometric tests are repeatedly administered, and is possibly augmented as a result of greater attention being given to the subjects by dint of studying them. Having this important information calls into question the claims in other studies of an effect of GHT on HRQOL in children as the retest effect was not taken into account.…”

The Impact of Situational Test Anxiety on Retest Effects in Cognitive Ability Testing: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

“…Cognitive ability tests included in this analysis were general memory, processing speed, divergent thinking, and reasoning. A non-linear progression of retest effects has also been found by a meta-analysis focusing on score gains in working memory tests [5]. Finally, retest effects in figural matrices tests seem to follow this pattern as well [6].…”

“…The plateau of the mean ability estimate after the fourth test session seems to be at odds with the meta-analytic results reported by Scharfen et al [6], where retest effects of fluid reasoning tasks (often measured using figural matrices tests) were observed only up to the third test session. However, as Scharfen et al [5] found, retest effects in the domain of working memory regularly remain up to the fourth test session. The distinction between reasoning and working memory has been heavily discussed and high correlations between measurements of both constructs are consistently found (e.g., [99][100][101]).…”

“…The progression of retest effects over multiple test sessions and the causes for retest effects are not yet fully understood. Meta-analytic evidence for increasing test performance in various cognitive ability tests due to retesting has been reported by several authors [2][3][4][5][6]. The size of the effect is moderated by several variables such as equivalence of test forms, test-retest interval, participant age, as well as cognitive ability operation and content.…”

“…This implies a loss of construct validity in later test sessions [22]. Yet, the literature suggests that retest effects also occur when parallel forms of tests are provided [4][5][6]. Accordingly, attempts should be made to create and use different but parallel test versions.…”