Self-reporting does not correlate with cognition

  • Published: 03-04-2014 Edited: 03-04-2014
  • Self-reporting alone does not correlate with cognition and it is not rational to think it does.

    * There exists no self-reporting test that correlates with cognition anywhere. In clinical work on cognition, when self-reporting tests are used they are used in combination with other test to measure cognition, for example in WAIS.

    Self reporting will be correlated with longterm memories of self and others, that is why all self-reporting based testing will be correlated with longterm memories rather than cognition. The other problem with self-reporting tests is that they are strongly influenced by the persons semantic vocabulary and how the person understand different words and attributes. To be able to do a self-reporting test accurately a person would need to have the exact semantics of the words (and sentences) of the test in synch with how the test-designer's semantics are.