The NART as an index of prior intellectual functioning: a retrospective validity study covering a 66-year interval
Year: 2001
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: BACKGROUND: The National Adult Reading Test (NART) is widely used in research and clinical practice as an estimate of pre-morbid or prior ability. However, most of the evidence on the NART's validity as a measure of prior intellectual ability is based on concurrent administration of the NART and an IQ measure. METHOD: We followed up 179 individuals who had taken an IQ test (the Moray House Test) at age 11 and administered the NART and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) at age 77. A subset (N = 97) were also re-administered the original IQ test. RESULTS: The correlation between NART performance at age 77 and IQ age 11 was high and statistically significant (r = 0.73; P < 0001). This correlation was comparable to the correlation between NART and current IQ, and childhood IQ and current IQ, despite the shared influences on the latter variable pairings. The NART had a significant correlation with the MMSE but this correlation fell to near zero (r = 0.02) after partialling out the influence of childhood IQ. DISCUSSION: The pattern of results provides strong support for the claim that the NART primarily indexes prior (rather than current) intellectual ability.
Source: Psychological Medicine
Authors: J. R. CRAWFORD, I. J. DEARY, J. STARR, L. J. WHALLEY
Institutions: University of Aberdeen, University of Edinburgh
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2108594039