Miriam A. Novack

Standardized cognitive assessments are essential in research but often limited by proprietary restrictions and methodological constraints. This study evaluates the psychometric properties of two public-domain International Cognitive Ability Resource (ICAR) measures implemented in the Mobile Toolbox (MTB) assessment library: Puzzle Completion and Block Rotation. Using a sample of 100 adults (18–82 years), we assessed internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and construct validity compared to gold-standard measures. Results demonstrated acceptable reliability for both Puzzle Completion and Block Rotation. Each measure showed moderate to strong correlations with respective gold-standard assessments: Puzzle Completion correlated with Raven’s Progressive Matrices (r = 0.40), and Block Rotation with Mental Rotation Test (r = 0.46). Practice effects were non-significant. Both demonstrated the ability to discriminate between verbal and nonverbal abilities. Findings were consistent with previous ICAR validations, suggesting MTB provides a viable option for remote self-administration while preserving measurement integrity. This enables larger sample collection and ecological assessment of cognitive abilities outside of laboratory settings.

Background: Cognitive impairment (CI) and related conditions are known to affect decision-making (DM), particularly in older adult populations. The intersection of CI and DM ability is crucial in end-of-life (EoL) care, where there is a confluence of heterogenous preferences and values often across different constituents (e.g., healthcare providers, family members, and proxies). Standardized questionnaires are necessary to characterize patients’ EoL decisions, preferences, and readiness, but the extent of available measures is widely unknown.Objective: This scoping review aims to summarize the current state of the literature regarding EoL decision-making measures. This effort supports the development of the Advancing Reliable Measurement in Cognitive Aging and Decision-making Ability (ARMCADA) research initiative, which seeks to develop a decision-making battery for use in older adults.Methods: Following the Arksey and O’Malley framework, we conducted a scoping review for multiple domains of DM in studies published between January 2018 and November 2023. Any paper that assessed or characterized DM in participants 45 years and older was extracted for the DM domain, population characteristics, and DM measures.Results: An initial search identified 16,286 articles, of which 705 were classified as assessing DM. Of those, 34 articles included measures of the EoL domain, and 28 unique measures were identified. The MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Treatment (MacCAT-T), the Decisional Conflict Scale (DCS), and the Decision Regret Scale (DRS) were the only assessments used more than once in the scoping review. Many studies assessed clinical populations, including those with CI/dementia (12%), cancer (24%), and chronic conditions (16%). Findings show that measures used at the end of life emphasize decisional preferences, efficacy, and conflict.Conclusion: Overall, this review highlights the lack of DM ability measures that can assess older adults’ capacity to make decisions regarding EoL-specific issues (e.g., life-sustaining treatment and pain management).

Introduction Deficits in decision-making (DM) can lead to adverse outcomes across multiple domains such as financial management and medical care. By hindering such DM abilities, cognitive impairment (CI) often affects quality of life. Routine screening for CI, however, does not include systematic and comprehensive assessment of DM ability. While there are many DM measures, there is considerable heterogeneity in what constructs are measured and the populations in which they have been validated. This scoping review protocol details the proposed comprehensive examination of published literature on DM measures used in adults aged 45 years and older. Methods and analysis Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) scoping review methodology framework will guide the current scoping review. We will systematically search Embase (Elsevier), MEDLINE (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ebsco), Cochrane Library (Wiley), Web of Science (Clarivate) and Scopus (Elsevier) to identify the studies meeting our eligibility criteria. We will review literature published between January 2018 and November 2023. Following best practice recommendations, a two-stage study selection process will be applied. First, titles and abstracts will be independently reviewed by two reviewers based on our eligibility criteria. Second, full texts will be screened and data will be extracted only from the articles included after the full review. The results of the current scoping review will be reported in adherence to PRISMA-Scr guidelines. Ethics and dissemination This study does not require ethics approval as the scoping review methodology involves reviewing results from publicly available published materials. Results of the scoping review will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Trial registration number NIA grant number 1U24AG082022-01.

The progress of developmental research demands reliable measurement techniques, yet inconsistency persist across laboratories, subfields, and settings. To address this, the NIH Toolbox for Neurological and Behavioral Function (NIHTB)® has been extended to create a universal assessment for developmental and pediatric communities: The NIH Infant and Toddler (“Baby”) Toolbox. Currently undergoing norming in a sample of 2550 children demographically representative of the 2020 U.S. census, the Baby Toolbox is slated for release in late 2024. This paper introduces the Baby Toolbox, details its objectives, development, and technological innovations, describes plans for reliability and norming, and invites researchers to consider the Baby Toolbox in the future studies. Ultimately, this initiative stands to enhance cross-study comparability and advance comprehensive developmental evaluation.

Purpose: Children with a history of late talking continue to score on the low-average end of the language endowment spectrum as they grow up. Most research on Late Talker outcomes focuses on spoken language, raising questions about the role of nonverbal communication in children with a history of late talking. The current study extends work on Late Talker outcomes by examining gesture use in children with and without a history of late talking.Method: Preschool aged children with a history of late talking (hLT, n = 16) and with a history of typical talking (hTT, n = 23) told four stories based on wordless cartoons. We examined their gesture use by coding gesture frequency, types (deictic vs. representational), and the informational relationship between spoken language and gesture (redundant vs. non-redundant). We hypothesized that hLTs would recruit gesture as a communication tool during storytelling to supplement their spoken language skills, and thus use more gestures and specifically more representational and non-redundant gestures.Results: Both groups used gestures during the storytelling task. However, we did not find significant differences between hLTs and hTTs on measures of gesture frequency, type, or informational relation to spoken language. Conclusion: Gesture appears to be a ubiquitous communication tool used alongside spoken language for preschoolers with and without a history of late talking. Our findings suggest that a history of late talking does not reliably predict gesture use at 4 years of age.Keywords: gesture, nonverbal communication, history of late talking, language delay, communication outcomes, preschool.