Long-Term Stability and Intercorrelations of Cognitive Abilities in Older Persons

This project studied the intercorrelations and long-term stabilities of standard Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R), Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R), and Auditory-Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) summary indexes. It also reports similar data on the recently published Mayo Cognitive Factor Scales (MCFS), which are derivative indexes for the combined administrations of these 3 tests. These analyses challenge 2 assumptions that most psychologists make when interpreting adult cognitive tests: (a) that for cognitively normal people, performance in one cognitive domain correlates well with and predicts functioning in other cognitive domains, and (b) that in the absence of pathology, cognition is stable.