The serial use of child neurocognitive tests: development versus practice effects

Abstract

When serial neurocognitive assessments are perfomed. 2 main factors are of importance: test—retest reliabílity and practice effects, With children. however. there is a third. developmental factor. which occurs as a result of maturation. Child tests recognise this factor through the provision of age.corrected scaled scores. Thus, a ready.mad method for estimating the relative contribution of developmentaI versus practice effects is the comparison of raw (developmental and practice) and scaled (practice only) scores. Data from a pool of 507 Portuguese children enrolled in a study of dental amalgams T. A. DeRouen, B. G. Leroux, et al, 2002; T. A- DeRouen., M. D. Martin, et aI., 2006) showed that practice effects over a 5-year period varied on 8 neurocognitive tests. Simple regression equations are provided for calculating individual retest scores from initial test scores.