Evaluating the Correspondence of Different Cognitive Batteries

It is widely accepted that abilities are a meaningful level of abstraction for distinguishing among individuals with respect to their levels of cognitive functioning. However, relatively little is known about the extent to which different combinations of tests reflect the same cognitive abilities, or about the relation of cognitive abilities in one test battery with specific tests in another battery. Data from two cognitive batteries were analyzed to determine the correspondence of ability factors in the two batteries, and to evaluate the relative influence of cognitive abilities from one battery on the subtest scores in the other battery. Although the batteries involved different combinations of tests, correlations between the theoretically similar ability factors in the two batteries were very high (i.e., r > .84). Furthermore, with only a few exceptions, the primary influences on the subtest scores in one battery were from the theoretically relevant ability factor in the other battery.