A – 14 Beyond Total Scores: Cognitive Process Indicators of Mild Cognitive Impairment

Abstract Objective Subtle cognitive insufficiencies, such as intrusion errors, may reflect early frontal-executive dysfunction and provide clinically meaningful information beyond total scores for identifying older adults at risk for neurodegenerative processes (Thomas et al., 2018). This study examined whether process scores improve the clinical differentiation of MCI from normal aging. Method Fifty-six MCI patients (including amnestic and non-amnestic, single and multiple domain subtypes) and 54 with normal cognition (NC) completed the California Verbal Learning Test-II (CVLT-II) and Trail Making Test (TMT) Parts A and B as part of a neuropsychological evaluation at a Memory Disorder Clinic. The sample (M age=74.28, SD=1.49) was primarily Caucasian (92.7%), non-Hispanic (91.7%), and equally gender-matched. Results A Mann-Whitney U test showed total intrusion errors on the CVLT-II differed between MCI (Mean Rank=64.96) and NC (Mean Rank=45.69), U=982.50, z=-3.18, p=.001. Total TMT-B errors differed between MCI (Mean Rank=81.04) and NC (Mean Rank=58.56), U=1673.50, z=-3.55, p<.001. Moreover, TMT-B set-loss errors differed between MCI (M=0.54, SD=0.71) and NC (M=0.26, SD=0.44), t(105.35)=-2.55, p=.012, 95% CI [-0.50, -0.06], as did sequencing errors (Mean Rank=64.00 vs. 50.20), U=1235.00, z=-2.83, p=.005. TMT-A errors did not differ between groups. Conclusion Findings suggest that individuals with MCI make more frequent errors on verbal memory and set-shifting tasks, possibly reflecting poorer executive control across both amnestic and non-amnestic subtypes.