Category Test score as related to age in two brain-damaged populations

Concerned with the relationship between age and the Category Test, which is alleged to measure abstract reasoning deficits among brain-damaged patients. Scores on the Category Test from the Halstead-Reitan Battery were used. Sixty-two scores from brain-damaged patients and 417 from alcoholics were compared in terms of the age of the patients. It was found that age was an important variable for the alcoholic, as opposed to those not so diagnosed. These results put into question the findings of a previous study, which showed that years of drinking is the distinguishing variable when Category Test is considered. Discussion focuses upon speculation that chronic alcoholism is tied to age as a progressive illness.