Influence of Demographics on Computerized Cognitive Testing in a Military Sample

Abstract

Computerized cognitive testing with software programs such as the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM) have long been used to assess cognition in military samples. This study describes demographic influences on computerized testing performance in a large active duty military sample (n = 2366). Performance differences between men and women were minimal on most ANAM subtests, but there was a clear speed/accuracy trade-off, with men favoring speed and women favoring accuracy on the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) subtest. As expected, reaction time increased with age on most subtests, with the exception of Mathematical Processing Test (MTH). Higher education resulted in significant but minimal performance increases on Code Substitution (CDS), Matching to Sample (MSP), and Memory Search (STN) subtests. In contrast, substantial performance differences were seen between education groups on the MTH subtest. These data reveal that it is important to consider demographic factors, particularly age, when using ANAM to draw conclusions about military samples. These results also point to the importance of exploring demographic influences for all reaction time–based computerized assessment batteries.