School of Social and Behavioral Health Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis.
Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, British Columbia.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2019 Feb 15;74(3):397-408. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbx115.
To formally identify and contrast the most commonly-employed quantifications of response time inconsistency (RTI) and elucidate their utility for understanding within-person (WP) and between-person (BP) variation in cognitive function with increasing age.
Using two measurement burst studies of cognitive aging, we systematically identified and computed five RTI quantifications from select disciplines to examine: (a) correlations among RTI quantifications; (b) the distribution of BP and WP variation in RTI; and (c) the comparability of RTI quantifications for predicting attention switching.
Comparable patterns were observed across studies. There was significant variation in RTI BP as well as WP across sessions and bursts. Correlations among RTI quantifications were generally strong and positive both WP and BP, except for the coefficient of variation. Independent prediction models indicated that slower mean response time (RT) and greater RTI were associated with slower attention switching both WP and BP. For selecting simultaneous prediction models, collinearity resulted in inflated standard errors and unstable model estimates.
RTI reflects a novel dimension of performance that is a robust and theoretically informative predictor of BP and WP variation in cognitive function. Among the plenitude of RTI quantifications, not all are interchangeable, nor of comparable predictive utility.
正式识别和对比反应时不一致（RTI）最常用的量化方法，并阐明它们在理解认知功能随年龄增长的个体内（WP）和个体间（BP）变化方面的效用。
使用两项认知老化的测量爆发研究，我们系统地从选定的学科中识别和计算了五种 RTI 量化方法，以考察：（a）RTI 量化方法之间的相关性；（b）BP 和 WP 中 RTI 变化的分布；（c）预测注意力转换时 RTI 量化方法的可比性。
在两项研究中均观察到类似的模式。在各个会话和爆发中，BP 和 WP 之间的 RTI 存在显著差异。WP 和 BP 中，除了变异系数外，RTI 量化方法之间的相关性通常较强且为正相关。独立的预测模型表明，平均反应时间（RT）越慢和 RTI 越大，WP 和 BP 中的注意力转换速度越慢。对于选择同时预测模型，共线性导致标准误差膨胀和模型估计不稳定。
RTI 反映了一种新的性能维度，是认知功能 BP 和 WP 变化的稳健且具有理论意义的预测指标。在大量的 RTI 量化方法中，并非所有方法都是可互换的，也不是具有可比的预测效用。
