Effects of aging on efficiency of task switching in a variant of the Trail Making Test.

Salthouse, Timothy A., Toth, Jeffrey, Daniels, Karen, Parks, Colleen, Pak, Richard, Wolbrette, Michelle, Hocking, Kellie J.·2000·Neuropsychology
DOI 10.1037//0894-4105.14.1.102

Abstract

The Trail Making Test (TMT; R. M. Reitan, 1958, 1992) is extensively used in research in neuropsychology and in aging, in part because it has been postulated to reflect executive processes, such as planning and switching. However, neurocognitive and individual-difference-based analyses of this test are complicated because of different spatial arrangements of targets, the use of letters only in Version B, and potential order effects when Version A is administered prior to Version B. The present article examines a variant of a TMT (called the Connections Test) that attempts to remedy these deficiencies. A structural equation model suggested that there were no direct effects of age on either the nonalternating or alternating versions of the Connections Test (analogous to TMT Versions A and B, respectively); rather, all age-related effects were mediated through effects on perceptual speed. Moreover, although the nonalternating and alternating versions were strongly related to one another, only the latter had significant independent relations with measures of higher order cognition.

Cited by (12)

  1. The elusive nature of executive functions: a review of our current understanding.
    Jurado, María Beatriz, Rosselli, Mónica · 2007 · Neuropsychology Review
  2. Dimensions of executive functioning: evidence from children
    Lehto, Juhani E., Juujärvi, Petri, Kooistra, Libbe, Pulkkinen, Lea · 2003 · British Journal of Developmental Psychology
  3. The Psychology Experiment Building Language (PEBL) and PEBL Test Battery
    Mueller, Shane T., Piper, Brian J. · 2014 · Journal of Neuroscience Methods
  4. Executive Functioning as a Potential Mediator of Age-Related Cognitive Decline in Normal Adults.
    Salthouse, Timothy A., Atkinson, Thomas M., Berish, Diane E. · 2003 · Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
  5. Scoring Higher the Second Time Around: Meta-Analyses of Practice Effects in Neuropsychological Assessment
    Calamia, Matthew, Markon, Kristian, Tranel, Daniel · 2012 · The Clinical Neuropsychologist

See all 197

How to cite

Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.

This page
CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Effects of aging on efficiency of task switching in a variant of the Trail Making Test. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1037//0894-4105.14.1.102
The paper
Salthouse, T. A., Toth, J., Daniels, K., Parks, C., Pak, R., Wolbrette, M., & Hocking, K. J. (2000). Effects of aging on efficiency of task switching in a variant of the Trail Making Test. Neuropsychology. https://doi.org/10.1037//0894-4105.14.1.102

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.