Instrumental and test-retest reliability of saccadic measures

Little is known about the reliabilities of the various measures of saccade control that can be derived from pro- and anti-saccade tasks. This paper presents correlational results of 2 different studies comprising altogether 446 psychiatrically and neurologically healthy participants in the range of 6-88 years. Saccades were elicited under different stimulation conditions and during task blocks of 100 or 200 trials. Odd-even and split-half correlations determined for study 1 (N = 327, age 9-88 years) were found to be good to excellent (.60 less than or equal to r less than or equal to .97) for most measures and generalisable over the entire life-span. The 19-month test-retest correlations obtained in study 2 (N = 117, age 6-18 years) ranged between .43 and .66 after controlling for age, and suggest moderate stability of individual differences over time during childhood and adolescence. Hence, these parameters are very useful for concurrent validity studies at every age, but less so for predictive validity studies with children and adolescents. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.