The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) assessed their cohort members (CMs) during the study’s age 8.5 sweep (Focus@8) using the Object Assembly measure from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III).
Details on this measure and the data collected from the CMs are outlined in the table below.
| Years of data collection: | 1999-2001 | |
| Domain: | Non-verbal reasoning | |
| Measures: | Spatial visualization | |
| Non-verbal reasoning | ||
| Simultaneous processing | ||
| Visual-motor coordination | ||
| Dexterity | ||
| Non-verbal concept formation | ||
| CHC: | Gf (Fluid intelligence) | |
| Gs (Processing speed) | ||
| CLOSER Source: | Explore this sweep in CLOSER Discovery: ALSPAC Childhood (5 years to 12 years 11 months) (opens in a new tab) | |
| Administration method: | Trained interviewer; clinical setting; physical task | |
| Procedure: | The child was presented with the pieces of a puzzle in a standard arrangement and was instructed to fit the pieces together to form a meaningful whole within 90 seconds. A total of six trials were administered. The examiner demonstrated using a sample puzzle before the test began. On the first puzzle, the examiner demonstrated the correct arrangement if the child failed to complete, however no second trial was given. | |
| Link to questionnaire: | http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/researchers/our-data/clinical-measures/ (opens in new tab) | |
| Scoring: | Scores consist of the correct number of junctures (where two pieces join), with bonus points added for correctly completed trials. Raw scores are converted into scale scores using tables provided in the WISC manual (M = 10, SD = 3). | |
| Item-level variable(s): | Not readily available | |
| Total score/derived variable(s): | f8ws030 – f8ws060 Explore these variables in CLOSER Discovery: ALSPAC Focus at 8 Clinic Dataset (opens in a new tab) |
|
| Descriptives: | Raw score | Scaled score |
| N = 6,983 | N = 6,984 | |
| Range = 0 - 44 | Range = 1 - 19 | |
| Mean = 23.96 | Mean = 9.98 | |
| SD = 8.40 | SD = 3.77 | |
(click image to enlarge) | (click image to enlarge) |
|
| Age of participants (months): | Mean = 103.82 months, SD = 3.92, Range = 89 - 127 | |
| Other sweep and/or cohort: | ALSPAC – Age 4 – WPPSI-RUK Object Assembly | |
| Source: | Wechsler, D. (1991). WISC-III: Wechsler intelligence scale for children: Manual. Psychological Corporation. | |
| Technical resources: | Kaufman, A. S., & Lichtenberger, E. O. (2000). Essentials of WISC-III and WPPSI-R assessment. John Wiley & Sons Inc. | |
| Example articles: | Horwood, J., Salvi, G., Thomas, K., Duffy, L., Gunnell, D., Hollis, C., ... & Zammit, S. (2008). IQ and non-clinical psychotic symptoms in 12-year-olds: results from the ALSPAC birth cohort. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 193(3), 185-191. | |
| Northstone, K., Joinson, C., Emmett, P., Ness, A., & Paus, T. (2012). Are dietary patterns in childhood associated with IQ at 8 years of age? A population-based cohort study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 66(7), 624-628. | ||
For the named items in the table above, links are provided to their corresponding content on CLOSER Discovery. Where a variable range is provided, full variable lists can be accessed through the ‘Variable Groups’ tab on the linked Discovery page.
Go to:
- Overview of all cognitive measures in ALSPAC
- Overview of childhood cognitive measures across all studies
This page is part of CLOSER’s ‘A guide to the cognitive measures in five British birth cohort studies’.