RESUMO
Many popular activities are thought by the general public to improve cognitive function. Such expectations can influence how often people engage in these activities, as well as the scientific evaluation of their putative cognitive benefits, e.g., via placebo effects. Here, we gathered survey data about the public's perceptions of nine different activities commonly thought to be cognitively stimulating, including "brain-training" games. Information was collected about the degree to which participants thought each activity was beneficial for improving cognitive function and how often they engaged in each activity. The patterns of correlation between ratings reveal details about the perception of cognitive benefits and its relation to engagement. They suggest that participants varied with respect to an overarching perception of the entire set of activities, which were perceived also as divided into three clusters. Frequency of engagement and perceived cognitive benefits were positively correlated across participants for each activity considered individually. But, when the activities were compared, the magnitude of their perceived benefits was not a good predictor of their frequency of engagement (and vice versa). Though small, there were systematic demographic differences. Women were more optimistic than men about cognitive benefits. Individual participants differed in the range of their ratings of benefit across activities, and these ranges were greater for younger than older participants, suggesting that perceptions of benefit are more differentiated among the young. Besides contributing to a better understanding of public expectations of cognitive benefits, the findings of this study are relevant to the critical evaluation of such benefits. Our survey can be viewed as providing an interface between expectations held by the general public and the design of studies examining the efficacy of cognitive training. The type of information it provides could be used in the selection of activities performed by an active control group, so that control activities match the treatment intervention as closely as possible with respect to such expectations.
RESUMO
The NeuroCognitive Performance Test (NCPT) is a brief, repeatable, web-based cognitive assessment platform that measures performance across several cognitive domains. The NCPT platform is modular and includes 18 subtests that can be arranged into customized batteries. Here we present normative data from a sample of 130,140 healthy volunteers for an NCPT battery consisting of 8 subtests. Participants took the NCPT remotely and without supervision. Factor structure and effects of age, education, and gender were evaluated with this normative dataset. Test-retest reliability was evaluated in a subset of participants who took the battery again an average of 78.8 days later. The eight NCPT subtests group into 4 putative cognitive domains, have adequate to good test-retest reliability, and are sensitive to expected age- and education-related cognitive effects. Concurrent validity to standard neuropsychological tests was demonstrated in 73 healthy volunteers. In an exploratory analysis the NCPT battery could differentiate those who self-reported Mild Cognitive Impairment or Alzheimer's disease from matched healthy controls. Overall these results demonstrate the reliability and validity of the NCPT battery as a measure of cognitive performance and support the feasibility of web-based, unsupervised testing, with potential utility in clinical and research settings.