Developmental normative data for the Corsi Block-tapping task. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2006 Aug;28(6):1043-52
Date
07/11/2006Pubmed ID
16822742DOI
10.1080/13803390500350977Scopus ID
2-s2.0-33745856265 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 142 CitationsAbstract
The Corsi Block-Tapping task has been utilized as a measure of spatial memory in both clinical and research contexts for several decades. Despite its wide application, the task has been employed with extraordinary variability in administration and scoring and in the composition of stimulus item sets. We have generated a set of test items containing quasi-randomly derived block-tapping sequences. In another study, we investigated item difficulty as a function of path configuration and showed a decline in performance with increasing span capacity load. In the current cross-sectional study, we evaluated developmental differences in span capacity by measuring performances of school children from grade 1 (M age = 7 years) to grade 8 (M age = 14) and a young adult sample (M age = 21 years). Mean span capacity increased incrementally and linearly with age, and no gender difference was observed. The increase in performance with advancing age supports the notion that spatial immediate memory capacity increases with maturation throughout childhood. Comparisons indicated that the span capacity of eighth graders (M = 6.9) was not statistically different from that of the young adults (M = 7.1), suggesting an upper developmental plateau for spatial span in early adolescence. This study provides a normative database for this widely utilized measure of spatial memory.
Author List
Farrell Pagulayan K, Busch RM, Medina KL, Bartok JA, Krikorian RAuthor
Krista Lisdahl PhD Assistant Professor in the Psychology department at University of Wisconsin - MilwaukeeMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdolescentAdult
Age Factors
Analysis of Variance
Child
Child Development
Cognition
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Male
Memory
Neuropsychological Tests
Spatial Behavior
