Exploratory factor analysis of neuropsychological tests and their relationship to the Brown–Peterson task

The interference condition of the Brown–Peterson task and the auditory consonant trigrams test was designed to evaluate working memory in that it required a division of attentional processes to complete two cognitive tasks. However, the specific cognitive functions contributing to the performance of...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archives of clinical neuropsychology 2006-10, Vol.21 (7), p.733-739
Main Authors: Mertens, Valérie B., Gagnon, Michèle, Coulombe, Daniel, Messier, Claude
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Adult. Elderly
Age Factors
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Attention - physiology
Auditory consonant trigrams test
Biological and medical sciences
Developmental psychology
Dual information
Education
Executive functions
Factor Analysis, Statistical
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Male
Mathematics
Medical sciences
Memory, Short-Term - physiology
Middle Aged
Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Techniques and methods
Working memory
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The interference condition of the Brown–Peterson task and the auditory consonant trigrams test was designed to evaluate working memory in that it required a division of attentional processes to complete two cognitive tasks. However, the specific cognitive functions contributing to the performance of this interference task have yet to be determined. The objective of this study was to determine what other tasks are comparable to the Brown–Peterson task and conduct an exploratory factor analysis that included the measures from the Brown–Peterson task and other neuropsychological measures. A neuropsychological battery was administered to younger participants ( n = 107, mean age = 20.83) and older participants ( n = 93, mean age = 70.14). Factor analysis yielded a two-factor solution. Performance after the intervening serial subtraction task loaded on an auditory/visual working memory and complex attention factor and had common loadings with working memory subtests of the WAIS-III and the spatial span subtest of the WMS-III. Results suggest that the performance after the intervening serial subtraction task evaluates dual information processing, complex attention, and working memory.
ISSN:0887-6177
1873-5843
DOI:10.1016/j.acn.2006.08.005