Washington Group Cognitive Test

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Washington Group Cognitive Test

• Kristen Miller
• Questionnaire Design Research Lab
• National Center for Health Statistics, USA

• Purpose of cognitive test
• Structure of protocol
• Types of cognitive test data possible analyses
• Things to keep in mind

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Purpose of Cognitive Testing

• Interviews Designed to examine the stages of the
  question response process
• Comprehension, retrieval, judgment, response
• Analysis Identifies
• potential response errors (e.g. vague concepts,
  recall problems, inadequate response options)
• patterns of interpretation

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Traditional Cognitive Testing

• Protocol Semi-structured
• Data collected are qualitative
• Qualitative methodologies for analysis
• Small samples approx. 10 30 participants

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Washington Group Protocol

• Structured Questionnaire
• Designed to illustrate
• Administration ease
• Interpretations
• Factors considered by respondent
• Degree of consistency with physical abilities
• Differences between subgroups

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Cognitive Interview Protocol

• Demographic Section Country, language, gender,
  age, SES
• Question Testing Sections
• Core Question
• Interviewer Coding
• Open-ended Follow-up Probe
• Cognitive Follow-up Probe
• Functioning Follow-up Probe
• Health Questions subjective health, chronic
  condition list
• Interviewer Debriefing

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Interviewer Code

• Did the respondent
• need you to repeat any part of the question?
  Yes/No
• have any difficulty using the response options?
  Yes/No
• ask for clarification or qualify their answer?
  Yes/No

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Percent of respondents with no response problems

• Vision 83.89
• Hearing 88.47
• Cognitive 85.72
• Mobility 91.03
• Self-care 93.65
• Communication 86.70
• N1,287

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Number of response problems by age
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Open-ended Follow-up Probe

• Can you tell me what you were thinking? Why did
  you answer fill with respondents answer to the
  core question?

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Qualitative Data

• Varied in quality
• A lot missing
• Very brief
• Provides some insight
• E.g. Because I wear glasses

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Cognitive Follow-up Probes

• How often they had difficulty
• The amount of effort they needed to put into the
  activity
• The degree of concern or worry they had regarding
  the difficulty
• Other domain-specific questions
• Communication Shyness question
• Cognitive Reason question

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Cognition Cognitive Probe

• Do you believe that your memory or concentration
  difficulties are
• Mark all that apply
• because you have too many things to do?
• because you getting older?
• or, because of something else?
• Only busy 28.78
• Aging 25.84
• Something else 43.07

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Reason by degree of problem
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Functioning Follow-up Probes

• Presence of a condition
• Use of an assistive device
• Degree of difficulty doing related activities

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Analysis of Functioning Data

• Examine the consistency between
• Washington Group Question responses and
• Follow-up functioning questions responses
• Goal explain the discrepancies
• Misunderstood word?
• Cultural difference?
• Translation problem?
• Interviewer error?
• Error in the follow-up questions?
• Other data assist in explanation

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Response patterns Vision
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Response patterns Hearing