Park Heyeon, Chey Jeanyung, Lee Jiyoun
Department of Psychology, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
Office of Humanitarian & Public Healthcare Support, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Korea.
Dement Neurocogn Disord. 2017 Mar;16(1):20-25. doi: 10.12779/dnd.2017.16.1.20. Epub 2017 Mar 31.
Vocabulary knowledge is used as a representative index of general intelligence, and is regarded as a marker for cognitive reserve in elderly people. However, vocabulary knowledge mainly depends on formal education, hence, it may not fully represent cognitive functioning in elderly people with poor educational backgrounds. Herein, we investigated whether vocabulary knowledge is a measure of general cognitive ability among normal elderly people with few years of formal education.
The association between vocabulary knowledge and general cognitive functioning was compared between 35 elderly females with very low educational attainment and 68 elderly females with higher education.
The vocabulary knowledge was a significant predictor of general cognitive functioning in elderly individuals with more than primary education, even after controlling the effects of age and years of education. However, it was not a significant predictor of general cognitive functioning in elderly individuals with very low educational attainment.
Vocabulary assessment was effective in estimating general cognitive functioning in elderly individuals who received ≥6 years of education. Our findings suggested that vocabulary knowledge may not be an effective proxy of premorbid intelligence or cognitive reserve in people who have not completed elementary schooling.
词汇知识被用作一般智力的代表性指标，并被视为老年人认知储备的一个标志。然而，词汇知识主要取决于正规教育，因此，它可能无法充分代表教育背景较差的老年人的认知功能。在此，我们调查了词汇知识是否是正规教育年限较少的正常老年人一般认知能力的一项指标。
比较了35名教育程度极低的老年女性和68名受过高等教育的老年女性在词汇知识与一般认知功能之间的关联。
即使在控制了年龄和受教育年限的影响后，词汇知识仍是受过小学以上教育的老年人一般认知功能的显著预测指标。然而，对于教育程度极低的老年人，它并不是一般认知功能的显著预测指标。
词汇评估在估计接受过≥6年教育的老年人的一般认知功能方面是有效的。我们的研究结果表明，对于未完成小学学业的人，词汇知识可能不是病前智力或认知储备的有效指标。
