When Do Pragmatic Abilities Peak? Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates-French Version Psychometric Properties Across the Lifespan.
Nicolas Petit, Flavia Mengarelli, Marie-Maude Geoffray Cassar, Giorgio Arcara, Valentina Bambini
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Abstract
Purpose: This study aims (a) to assess the psychometric properties of a French adaptation of the Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates (APACS-Fr), a comprehensive test of pragmatic abilities for French-speaking adolescents and adults, and (b) to use it to study lifespan variations in pragmatic abilities, to determine when pragmatic abilities peak.
Method: The APACS-Fr was adapted from the original Italian APACS and then used in a cross-sectional design to assess the pragmatic abilities of 184 participants aged between 14 and 88 years with no known disorder. The psychometric properties of the test were analyzed from these data, and age effects were assessed through locally estimated scatter plot smoothing regression and multiple linear regressions.
Results: The APACS-Fr was characterized by a good overall internal consistency, a good-to-excellent interrater reliability, and a good structural validity with a unifactorial structure. Age analysis revealed that accuracy consistently improves between 14 and approximately 25-30 years old. A decline in performance was also visible in some tasks after 70 years old. Multiple regressions revealed that socioeconomic status was an additional supporting factor on most tasks; in contrast, gender never resulted as a relevant predictor of performance.
Conclusions: Pragmatic abilities keep improving during late adolescence and early adulthood, before reaching a plateau around 25-30 years old, and they may decline after 70 years old. Taking this pattern into account should make research as well as clinical practice with adolescents and adults more accurate. The APACS-Fr embraces such a lifespan perspective. Thanks to its good psychometric properties, this freely distributed tool appears suitable to assess pragmatic abilities in French-speaking adolescents and adults.
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