University of Wisconsin–Madison

Obtaining comparable measurement of midlife cognitive functioning from disparate cognitive tasks

Black and white cover of Neuropsychology publication

Summary:

Question: How can we obtain comparable measurement of cognitive functioning for people who took different cognitive tests? Findings: Our method uses the relationship between cognitive functioning and individual characteristics (like high school achievement) to make cognitive scores comparable. Importance: National studies of aging often rely on multiple methods of surveying participants, including face-to-face, phone, and web; however, special techniques are needed to compare cognitive tests from these different methods. Next Steps: More research is needed to understand how many individual characteristics are needed for this technique to be effective. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)