Novel Cognitive Skill Measures in a Population-based Survey

In recent years, technological change has presented a valuable opportunity for innovation in the measurement of cognitive skills in large population based samples. We developed a suite of laboratory-validated cognitive skills assessments administered on touch screen tablet PCs, and deployed them in a clinic-based sample of 130 children aged 7-12 in the city of Boston, and then on population-based samples comprising a total of about 5800 children in Peru and Ethiopia. Assessments were based on paradigms that are well established in cognitive neuroscience and cognitive psychology, and were specifically designed to be domain general (that is, to require no prior exposure to knowledge from any specific subject area). For example, one set of cognitive skills that has received increasing attention in the empirical social sciences is executive function (EF);these skills underlie an individual's capacity to direct resources in pursuit of a goal. Guided by a human capital framework, I will present and discuss observed associations between assessed cognitive skills and demographic characteristics, as well as the results of investigation into some of the measurement properties of our assessments.