Morawietz Christina, Dumalski Nils, Wissmann Anna Maria, Wecking Jonas, Muehlbauer Thomas
Division of Movement and Training Sciences/Biomechanics of Sport, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2024 Feb 28;15:1365941. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1365941. eCollection 2024.
Spatial abilities are essential cognitive skills for many aspects of our everyday life that develop substantially throughout childhood and adolescence. While there are numerous measurement tools to evaluate these abilities, many of them have been designed for specific age groups hampering comparability throughout development. Thus, we determined test-retest-reliability and minimal detectable change for a set of tests that evaluate spatial ability performance in their variety in youth and compared them to young adults.
Children (age: 11.4 ± 0.5 years, = 26), adolescents (age: 12.5 ± 0.7 years, = 22), and young adults (age: 26.1 ± 4.0 years, = 26) performed a set of five spatial ability tests twice, 20 min apart: Paper Folding Test (PFT), Mental Rotation Test (MRT), Water Level Task (WLT), Corsi Block Test (CBT), and Numbered Cones Run (NCR). Relative and absolute test-retest reliability was determined by calculating the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and the standard error of measurement (SEM), respectively. Further, the minimal detectable change (MDC) was calculated to identify clinically relevant changes between repeated measurements.
Irrespective of test, reliability was "excellent" (i.e., ICC ≥ 0.75) in all age cohorts and the SEM values were rather small. The MDC values needed to identify relevant changes in repeated measurements of spatial ability performance ranged between 0.8 and 13.9% in children, 1.1 and 24.5% in adolescents, and 0.7 and 20.8% in young adults.
The determined values indicate that the investigated set of tests is reliable to detect spatial ability performance in healthy children, adolescents, and young adults.
空间能力是我们日常生活许多方面所必需的认知技能，在儿童期和青少年期会有显著发展。虽然有众多测量工具来评估这些能力，但其中许多是针对特定年龄组设计的，这妨碍了在整个发育过程中的可比性。因此，我们确定了一组用于评估青少年不同空间能力表现的测试的重测信度和最小可检测变化，并将其与年轻成年人进行比较。
儿童（年龄：11.4±0.5岁，n = 26）、青少年（年龄：12.5±0.7岁，n = 22）和年轻成年人（年龄：26.1±4.0岁，n = 26）对一组五项空间能力测试进行两次测试，间隔20分钟：折纸测试（PFT）、心理旋转测试（MRT）、水位任务（WLT）、科西方块测试（CBT）和编号锥体跑（NCR）。相对和绝对重测信度分别通过计算组内相关系数（ICC）和测量标准误差（SEM）来确定。此外，计算最小可检测变化（MDC）以识别重复测量之间的临床相关变化。
无论测试如何，所有年龄组的信度均为“优秀”（即ICC≥0.75），且SEM值相当小。识别空间能力表现重复测量中相关变化所需的MDC值在儿童中为0.8%至13.9%，在青少年中为1.1%至24.5%，在年轻成年人中为0.7%至20.8%。
所确定的值表明，所研究的这组测试对于检测健康儿童、青少年和年轻成年人的空间能力表现是可靠的。
