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The principal aim of our study was to present norms for old and very old Czech adults on the Czech version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and investigate the influence of social and demographic factors on MoCA performance. We analyzed 540 adults aged ≥ 60 years (5-year age categories; nationally representative sample in terms of sex and educational level), who met strict inclusion criteria for the absence of neurodegenerative disorders and performed within normal range in neuropsychological assessment. Using multiple regression model, we found that MoCA performance was affected by age and education (both p < .001) but not sex. The study provides normed percentile estimates for MoCA performance stratified by age (60-74 years; ≥ 75 years) and education lower versus higher. We also present percentile equivalents for the MoCA and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) for use in clinical practice. We found age- and education-related effects on MoCA performance which support the use of culturally adapted normative data.

There is accumulating evidence that training on working memory (WM) generalizes to other nontrained domains, and there are reports of transfer effects extending as far as to measures of fluid intelligence. Although there have been several demonstrations of such transfer effects in young adults and children, they have been difficult to demonstrate in older adults. In this study, we investigated the generalizing effects of an adaptive WM intervention on nontrained measures of WM and visuospatial skills. We randomly assigned healthy older adults to train on a verbal n-back task over the course of a month for either 10 or 20 sessions. Their performance change was compared with that of a control group. Our results revealed reliable group effects in nontrained standard clinical measures of WM and visuospatial skills in that both training groups outperformed the control group. We also observed a dose-response effect, that is, a positive relationship between training frequency and the gain in visuospatial skills; this finding was further confirmed by a positive correlation between training improvement and transfer. The improvements in visuospatial skills emerged even though the intervention was restricted to the verbal domain. Our work has important implications in that our data provide further evidence for plasticity of cognitive functions in old age., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.)

The aim of the present study was to assess the validity of a 12-word Czech version of the Philadelphia (repeatable) Verbal Learning Test [czP(r)VLT-12]. The construction of the czP(r)VLT-12 was modeled after the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) and the nine-word Philadelphia (repeatable) Verbal Learning Test [P(r)VLT]. The czP(r)VLT-12 was constructed from a large corpus of old (60-74) and very old (75-96) Czech adults (n = 540). Participants met strict inclusion criteria for the absence of any active or past neurodegenerative disorders and performed within normal limits on other neuropsychological measures. Principal component analysis (PCA) and correlations between czP(r)VLT-12 factor structure and other memory tests were conducted. The czP(r)VLT-12 produced a four-factor solution, accounting for 70.90% of variance, with factors related to: (1) recall, (2) extra-list intrusion errors/recognition foils, (3) interference, and (4) acquisition rate; a solution similar to the CVLT and P(r)VLT. Increasing age resulted in a decline in most czP(r)VLT-12 indices, women outperformed men, and higher education led to higher scores. Memory performance in normal aging did not correlate with instrumental activities of daily living. Low, but significant, correlations were seen with other tests of cognitive performance (divergent validity). Appendices are available that provide normed percentile estimates of individual czP(r)VLT-12 performance stratified by age, education, and gender. In accordance with previous studies, these results demonstrate the usefulness of czP(r)VLT-12 in assessing declarative memory in older adults.