Convergent Validity of Experimental Cognitive Tests in a Large Community Sample

Experimental cognitive tests are designed to measure particular cognitive domains, although evidence supporting test validity is often limited. The Consortium for Neuropsychiatric Phenomics test battery administered 23 experimental and traditional neuropsychological tests to a large sample of community volunteers (n = 1,059) and patients with psychiatric diagnoses (n = 137), providing a unique opportunity to examine convergent validity with factor analysis. Traditional tests included subtests from the Wechsler and Delis-Kaplan batteries, while experimental tests included the Attention Networks Test, Balloon Analogue Risk Task, Delay Discounting Task, Remember-Know, Reversal Learning Task, Scene Recognition, Spatial and Verbal Capacity and Manipulation Tasks, Stop-Signal Task, and Task Switching. Several experimental cognitive measures were insufficiently related to other tests and were excluded from factor analyses. In the remaining 18 tests, exploratory factor analysis and subsequent multigroup confirmatory factor analysis supported a three-factor structure broadly corresponding to domains of verbal/working memory, inhibitory control, and memory. In sum, several experimental measures of inhibitory control had weak relationships with all other tests, while the convergent validity of most tests of working memory and memory was supported.