Spanish normative studies (NEURONORMA-Plus project): norms for the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, the Modified Taylor Complex Figure, and the Ruff-Light Trail Learning Test

Abstract

Objective: The present study aims to provide norms and age-, education-, and sex-adjusted data for the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), the Modified Taylor Complex Figure (MTCF), and the Ruff-Light Trail Learning Test (RULIT) as part of the NEURONORMA-Plus project.

Methods: We recruited 308 cognitively healthy individuals aged between 18 and 92 years. Tables are provided to convert raw scores to age-adjusted scaled scores, as well as adjustments for education and sex after applying independent regression models in 2 age groups (< 50 and ≥ 50 years).

Results: Older age had a negative effect on performance in both age groups. We observed a positive effect of education on WCST performance in the younger group (< 50 years), and on all MTCF measures (with the exception of the recognition task) in the older group (≥ 50 years). Education had no impact on performance in the RULIT, although sex did, with a small but significant effect whereby young men showed higher performance for one variable.

Conclusion: The normative data provided can contribute to the clinical interpretation of performance in these tests in the Spanish population.

Keywords: Aprendizaje y memoria; Executive functions; Funciones ejecutivas; Learning and memory; Normas/Estudios normativos; Norms/normative studies.