# Ambulatory Methods for Measuring Cognitive Change

> **NIH NIH U2C** · PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE · 2021 · $777,216

## Abstract

Project Summary
Accurate and sensitive measurement of cognitive change is required to advance understanding
of normative cognitive aging and neurocognitive impairments, such as Alzheimer's disease.
Unfortunately, methodological barriers that constrain temporal precision and introduce
confounds in impede progress in the study of cognitive change. Mobile assessment approaches
afford novel opportunities to overcome these barriers by mitigating geographic, space and
personnel constraints imposed by in-person cognitive testing. We believe that using mobile
technology to assess cognition “anytime, anyplace” holds great potential to transform
biomedical research by improving detection and accurate monitoring of cognitive change. We
will develop cognitive tests and software for use in ecological momentary assessment (EMA)
measurement burst studies, an intensive longitudinal design which involves bursts of frequent,
repeated assessments in naturalistic environments. We will also use mobile assessments to
enhance traditional longitudinal designs by incorporating novel designs features (e.g., double-
baseline assessments), and by increasing the frequency of longitudinal assessments.
In response to RFA-AG-18-012, we propose to develop infrastructure for the Mobile Monitoring
of Cognitive Change (M2C2) that will provide the research community with open, flexible, and
usable tools to enable scientific progress that depends on the sensitive and accurate
measurement of cognitive change. We will build this infrastructure by accomplishing the
following aims. First, we will establish rapid iterative piloting and test development procedures
that accelerate our capacity to prototype, deploy, evaluate, and optimize candidate mobile
cognitive tests to meet psychometric, accessibility, and engagement benchmarks (Aim 1:
Iterative Design & Piloting). Second, evaluate reliability, construct validity, and longitudinal
validity of mobile cognitive testing procedures (Aim 2: Reliability & Validity) in a racially diverse
probability sample. Third, we replicate psychometric results in an independent, nationally
representative probability based sample, and create nationally representative norms (Aim 3:
Replication). And fourth, we will test our pipeline and procedures for incorporating new
measures into the mobile assessment infrastructure by evaluating novel measures for inclusion
that are nominated by investigators outside of our immediate research team (Aim 4: Extension).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10213641
- **Project number:** 5U2CAG060408-04
- **Recipient organization:** PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE
- **Principal Investigator:** Martin J Sliwinski
- **Activity code:** U2C (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $777,216
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-15 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10213641

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10213641, Ambulatory Methods for Measuring Cognitive Change (5U2CAG060408-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10213641. Licensed CC0.

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