OBJECTIVES: Assessments of cognitive function are important endpoints in clinical research. It is often important to carry out such assessments in an everyday setting. In such cases, portability and ease of use are very important. Smaller devices are more portable, but screen size may become a limitation. The study examined whether a mobile test battery yields similar results on a mobile phone (6cm diagonal screen) and a tablet (18cm).

METHODS: RESULTS: Test scores were similar for the platforms. Differences between phone and tablet were all small, with effect sizes < 0.25, and there was no clear tendency for scores to differ overall between platforms. For RT scores, correlations between phone and tablet scores were in the range 0.54 – 0.82 (mean 0.71). For PE scores correlations were somewhat lower. One measure, Shape Pairs, showed a correlation of 0.14. Other PE scores were in the range 0.53 – 0.76 (overall mean 0.59).

CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, these results indicate that there is good agreement between phones and tablets. The six tests, which assess a broad range of functions, can be used across a range of screen sizes from 6 – 18 cm with equivalent results, allowing great flexibility in the choice of portable devices for everyday assessments of cognition.