Construct and concurrent validity of the Cambridge neuropsychological automated tests in Portuguese older adults without neuropsychiatric diagnoses and with Alzheimer’s disease dementia

We aimed to analyze the construct and concurrent validity of the Rapid Visual Information Processing (RVP), Paired Associates Learning (PAL), Reaction Time (RTI), and Spatial Working Memory (SWM) tests from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB®). Inclusion criteria were checked in a first session. The CANTAB and additional pencil-and-paper tests were administered within 1 week. The participants (aged 69–96 years) were 137 Portuguese adults without neuropsychiatric diagnoses and 37 adults with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease dementia. Comparisons were made between the CANTAB tests and between these tests and the Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT), Verbal Fluency (VF) test, and some Wechsler Memory Scale-III and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III subtests. Most intra-test correlations were stronger than the CANTAB inter-test correlations. The RVP correlated more with VF animals (.44), the PAL with RCFT immediate recall (–.52), the RTI with RVP mean latency (.42), and the SWM with Spatial Span backward (–.39).     

Generalized concordance

Based on a simple nonparametric procedure for comparing two proximity matrices, a measure of concordance is introduced that is appropriate whenK independent proximity matrices are available. In addition to the development of a general concept of concordance and specific techniques for its evaluation within and between the subsets of a partition of theK matrices, several methods are also suggested for comparing and/or for fitting a particular structure to the given data. Finally, brief indications are provided as to how the well-known notion of concordance forK rank orders can be included within the more general framework.Partial support for this research was supplied by the National Science Foundation through SOC-77-28227.