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.