Department of Medical, Health and Neuropsychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands.
Aging Ment Health. 2021 May;25(5):873-878. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2020.1742658. Epub 2020 Apr 1.
Subjective measures of cognitive abilities are often used in various environments, such as clinical, experimental, and professional settings. Here, we assess the quality of such measures, specifically looking into the impact of age and gender. Spatial navigation ability will be used as an exemplary case, given its large individual variation and relevance to the healthy aging process. With a navigation experiment and a self-report questionnaire, the objective and subjective navigation performance of 7150 participants (age 18-89 years) was measured. Results showed the participants provided informative estimates of their cognitive performance. However, strong systematic biases were present related to age and gender. Overestimation increased with increasing age. Overestimation was also found for males, whereas underestimation was found for females. Consideration of such biases is recommended when implementing self-report measures of cognition and considering the potential impact these biases may have on cognitive functioning itself.
主观认知能力测量常用于临床、实验和专业环境等各种环境中。在这里，我们评估了这些测量方法的质量，特别关注年龄和性别因素的影响。鉴于空间导航能力具有较大的个体差异和与健康衰老过程的相关性，我们将其作为一个示例案例进行研究。通过导航实验和自我报告问卷，我们测量了 7150 名参与者（年龄 18-89 岁）的客观和主观导航能力。结果表明，参与者提供了有意义的认知表现的估计。然而，与年龄和性别相关的系统偏差明显存在。随着年龄的增长，高估的程度也随之增加。对于男性来说，存在高估的情况，而对于女性，则存在低估的情况。在实施认知的自我报告测量并考虑这些偏差可能对认知功能本身产生的潜在影响时，建议考虑这些偏差。
