Objective. This thesis examines the invariance of a battery of neuropsychological tests to known education-associated differences in strategy implementation and neural resource allocation underlying cognitive task performance in older adults without cognitive impairment.
Methods. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the fit of a three-factor measurement model (Verbal Ability, Visuospatial Ability, Long-term Retention; Tuokko et al., 2009) to scores from the neuropsychological battery of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CSHA) for the purpose of confirming the latent constructs measured by its 11 tests. Measurement equivalence of the model across lower- (LE; ≤8 years) and higher-educated (HE; ≥9 years) participants was then evaluated using invariance testing.
Results. The measurement model demonstrated adequate fit across LE and HE samples but the loadings of the 11 tests (indicators) onto the three factors could not be constrained equal across groups. Two non-invariant tests of verbal ability (Animal fluency, token test) were identified that, when freed from constraints, produced an invariant model. Constraint of factor covariances did not compromise the partial invariance of this model. Because demographic characteristics of the LE and HE samples differed significantly, findings were replicated on age-and sex-matched subsamples.
Conclusions. Two measures of verbal ability were not invariant across HE and LE samples of older adults, suggesting that the cognitive processes underlying performance on these tests may vary as a function of educational attainment. / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/3468 |
| Date | 17 August 2011 |
| Creators | Brewster, Paul W. H. |
| Contributors | MacDonald, Stuart Warren Swain |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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