Cognitive Abilities Questionnaire: Development and Evaluation of Psychometric Properties

Activity of daily living requires cognitive abilities and mean while the cognitive deficits can be reflected from the daily activity. The purpose of the present study was to design a cognitive abilities questionnaire, to perform factor analysis and to determine its validity and reliability. The present research was carried out within three separate cross sectional study phases. 1070 individuals participated in the first phase of the study in which we did the factor analysis for the preliminary version of the questionnaire. 50 students participated in a test- retest study with two to three weeks delay and 101 older adults completed the questionnaire in order have its discriminative validity determined. Komolnogrov-Smirnof, Factor analysis and t- test were used for data analysis. Exploratory factor analysis showed seven factors including memory, inhibitory control, selective attention, decision making, planning, sustain attention, social cognition and cognitive flexibility. The results indicated quite a strong Cronbach's alpha (0.834) and Pearson correlation test showed a significant correlation in the test- retest analysis (p<0.01). Pearson test showed a notable correlation between the average and all cognitive ability domains (all p values<0.01). Furthermore, t- test demonstrated a significant difference between all domains of cognitive abilities except planning and social cognition (p<0.001). The designed questionnaire showed to acquire a proper reliability and validity for evaluation of cognitive abilities. Evaluating the activity of daily living appears to be a good measure for cognitive abilities.