- Email: [email protected]
A revised version of the paced auditory serial attention test: Presented visually and aurally by computer
Abstractsfrom the 17thAnnualMeeting
91
Morris,R. L., & Marmol,L. M. An Investigation of the Pe~ormance of Hispanic/latino Persons on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.
To date, little research has been conductedin the area of neuropsychologicaltesting of HispanicAmericans.This is of concernbecausethe Hispanicpopulationis growingin the United States.Some attentionhas been given to creatingculturallyfair psychologicaltests and to creating Spanish versions of English tests. In the domain of neuropsychological assessment,however,normativestandardsfor Hispanicshave rarely been established.This researchstudyinvestigatedthe applicabilityof the WisconsinCard SortingTest(WCST)for a primarilybilingualMexican-AmericanHispanicgroupof adults(n = 34).Participantswere given a demographicquestionnaireand the WCST;both measureswere given in English. Results obtainedform initial normativestandardsfor a primarilyMexican-Americansubgroup. Comparing current findings with Heaton et al.’s normative data (1993) reveals nonsignificantdifferencesbetweenthe normativegroups.This suggeststhat if the participants understandthe instructionsin English, the test may generally be used with such persons. Mueller,R. M., Crossen,J. R., Primus,E. A., & Wiens,A. N. Concurrent ValidiO and Clinical Utility of a Seven-Subtest WAIS-R Short Form in Patients with Cerebral Tumors.
Recent studiesof the concurrentvalidityof the WechslerAdult IntelligenceScale-Revised (WAIS-R)seven-subtestshort form (Ward, 1990)have reportedhigh validitycoefficients across several groups (e.g., normal subjects,psychiatricpatients, and closed head injury patients).However,Iverson,Myers,Bengtson,andAdams(1996),foundthatthis shortform may not be accuratewith a subsetof patientswho carry the diagnosisof dementia.Their reportraisedthe questionwhetherthereare othergroupsof patientsfor whichthe concurrent validity of the short form may prove to be poor. In response to this question, validity coefficientsfor the seven-subtestshort form were calculated for the Verbal IQ (VIQ), PerformanceIQ (PIQ), and Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) with a sampleof patientswith cerebral tumors(n= 110)and were .97,.96,and .98,respectively.In this group,the averageestimated FSIQ and VIQ was within 1 pointwhilethe estimatedPIQ was within2 pointsof the actual WAIS-Rquotients.Bandwidthcalculationsrevealed that 95% of the correspondingshort formIQ estimateswere within6 pointsof FSIQ,7 pointsof VIQ, and 9 pointsof PIQ.These data supportthe concurrentvalidityof the seven-subtestshortform with patientsdiagnosed with cerebraltumors.Implicationsand futureresearchdirectionsare discussed. Murphy,J., Tbcker,D., & Price, C. A Revised Version of the Paced Auditory Serial Attention Test:Presented Visually and Aurally by Computer
The Paced AuditorySerialAttentionTask (PASAT)occasionallyfails to evaluatethe true informationprocessingand concentrationskills of patientswhen they adopt a strategyof skippingalternatesums,essentially“tricking”the PASATand obscuringtheir deficits.The PASATlosessensitivityamonghigherfunctioningadultsand thosewith higherintellectual functioningin particular(Brittain, 1991),when they adopt this strategy.Revised versions were designedto prevent individualsfrom employingthis masking strategy,and to better separatethe informationprocessingcomponentfrompersistenceand vigilance.Tworevised, computerizedversions of the PASATwere programmedwith SuperLab, for use with a Macintoshcomputer.A visualversionpresentsthe numberon the screen,and the auditory versionusesthe computercontrolledsynthesizedspeechprogram.In bothmodes,threetrials of numberswere presented,each trial containingincreasinglyrapid time intervalsbetween
—.
92
Abstractsfrom the 17thAnnualMeeting
numbers.Both versionsbegin with 2.8-secondintervalsbetweennumbers,gettingprogressively faster by 0.1 second,until the last pair of numbersis presentedwith a 0.4-second interval.Subjectswereinstructedto verbalizeeach sumwithoutskippingany.Pilottestswere conductedwith head injuredadultswith concentrationdeficits.Preliminaryresultsindicate that this alternativeversion of the PASATmay effectivelycapture deficits among higher functioningadults. Nelson,L., & Do, T. Using the MMPI-2 in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis.
This is a first-everstudy applyingGass’ neurocorrectionprocedureto the MMPI-2 in a sampleof patientswith MultipleSclerosis.Fifty subjectsparticipatedin this study.Conditions included Chronic-Progressiveand Relapsing-Remitting.Other tests were used as criterionmeasuresagainstwhichresultsbasedon the standardand neurocorrectedversionof theMMPI-2werecompared.ThesetestsincludedtheNeuropsychologyBehaviorandAffect Profile,designedto be completedby a relativerespondentaboutthe patient,and a modified version of the MMPI-2 DepressionScale, designed to be also completedby a relative respondent.Resultssupportedconcurrentvalidityof the MMPI-2DepressionScale, across both patient and relative respondents.Results further demonstratedsignificantdecreases acrossthreemajorMMPI-2Scales(Scales2, 7, and 8) in termsof T-scoreswhenthe testwas neurocorrectedusingGass’procedure.Neurocorrectedresultswerewithinnormallimits.Age effectswere also examined,supportingdecreaseddepressionin older subjects.The importance of consideringa neurocorrectionapproachin populationswhere neurologicalconditions includehigh base rates of physicalsymptomswas stressed.In these cases, using the MMPI-2may producefalse-positiveindicationsof pathologicalemotionalfunctioning. Nelson,L., Satz, P., Drebing,C., & Uchiyama,C. Personali@ Change Following Head Trauma: A Test Validity Study.
This studyrepresentsthe first attemptto cross-validateand report on the Neuropsychology BehaviorandAffectProfile(NBAP)usingclosedhead injury(CHI)participants.TheNBAP is designedto measureemotionalfunctioningbeforeand followinga brain event.Two CHI samples, differing primarily by method of ascertainment,were compared to a group of normal controls. Results provided support for concurrentand predictivevalidity of this measure of emotional functioningacross both CHI samples. A relatively new finding emergedwhich suggestedsignificantlyhigherlevelsof premorbidemotionalfunctioningin clinic-referredCHI patients comparedto CHI individualsnot seeking treatment (strictly researchparticipants).The possibilityof exaggeratedemotionallevelsin CHI clinicpatients was raised. Ogden,M. L., Lacritz,L. H., & Cullum,C. M. Qualitative Assessment of Semantic and Phonemic Fluency in Aging and Dementia.
Clinicalinterpretationof verbalfluencyperformancehas typicallyrelied more on quantitative than qualitativeanalyses,using total number of words generatedin a specifiedtime intervalto evaluatepatients’performances.This studyexaminedthe trends and diagnostic utilityof a qualitativescoringtechniquefor semantic(Animal)and phonemic(FAS)fluency tasksin patientswithAlzheimer’sDisease(AD;N = 82) and Parkinson’sDisease(PD;N = 64), as well as in a group of healthy elderly controls (ENC; N = 65). The groups were comparedon three componentsof generativenamingas originallydefinedby Troyeret al. (1997):(1) numberof wordsproduced,(2) clustering(i.e., ratio of wordsgeneratedwithin subcategories),and (3) switching(i.e.,frequencyof shiftsbetweenclusters).In termsof total number of words produced,controlswere superiorto the patient groups on both fluency
91
Morris,R. L., & Marmol,L. M. An Investigation of the Pe~ormance of Hispanic/latino Persons on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.
To date, little research has been conductedin the area of neuropsychologicaltesting of HispanicAmericans.This is of concernbecausethe Hispanicpopulationis growingin the United States.Some attentionhas been given to creatingculturallyfair psychologicaltests and to creating Spanish versions of English tests. In the domain of neuropsychological assessment,however,normativestandardsfor Hispanicshave rarely been established.This researchstudyinvestigatedthe applicabilityof the WisconsinCard SortingTest(WCST)for a primarilybilingualMexican-AmericanHispanicgroupof adults(n = 34).Participantswere given a demographicquestionnaireand the WCST;both measureswere given in English. Results obtainedform initial normativestandardsfor a primarilyMexican-Americansubgroup. Comparing current findings with Heaton et al.’s normative data (1993) reveals nonsignificantdifferencesbetweenthe normativegroups.This suggeststhat if the participants understandthe instructionsin English, the test may generally be used with such persons. Mueller,R. M., Crossen,J. R., Primus,E. A., & Wiens,A. N. Concurrent ValidiO and Clinical Utility of a Seven-Subtest WAIS-R Short Form in Patients with Cerebral Tumors.
Recent studiesof the concurrentvalidityof the WechslerAdult IntelligenceScale-Revised (WAIS-R)seven-subtestshort form (Ward, 1990)have reportedhigh validitycoefficients across several groups (e.g., normal subjects,psychiatricpatients, and closed head injury patients).However,Iverson,Myers,Bengtson,andAdams(1996),foundthatthis shortform may not be accuratewith a subsetof patientswho carry the diagnosisof dementia.Their reportraisedthe questionwhetherthereare othergroupsof patientsfor whichthe concurrent validity of the short form may prove to be poor. In response to this question, validity coefficientsfor the seven-subtestshort form were calculated for the Verbal IQ (VIQ), PerformanceIQ (PIQ), and Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) with a sampleof patientswith cerebral tumors(n= 110)and were .97,.96,and .98,respectively.In this group,the averageestimated FSIQ and VIQ was within 1 pointwhilethe estimatedPIQ was within2 pointsof the actual WAIS-Rquotients.Bandwidthcalculationsrevealed that 95% of the correspondingshort formIQ estimateswere within6 pointsof FSIQ,7 pointsof VIQ, and 9 pointsof PIQ.These data supportthe concurrentvalidityof the seven-subtestshortform with patientsdiagnosed with cerebraltumors.Implicationsand futureresearchdirectionsare discussed. Murphy,J., Tbcker,D., & Price, C. A Revised Version of the Paced Auditory Serial Attention Test:Presented Visually and Aurally by Computer
The Paced AuditorySerialAttentionTask (PASAT)occasionallyfails to evaluatethe true informationprocessingand concentrationskills of patientswhen they adopt a strategyof skippingalternatesums,essentially“tricking”the PASATand obscuringtheir deficits.The PASATlosessensitivityamonghigherfunctioningadultsand thosewith higherintellectual functioningin particular(Brittain, 1991),when they adopt this strategy.Revised versions were designedto prevent individualsfrom employingthis masking strategy,and to better separatethe informationprocessingcomponentfrompersistenceand vigilance.Tworevised, computerizedversions of the PASATwere programmedwith SuperLab, for use with a Macintoshcomputer.A visualversionpresentsthe numberon the screen,and the auditory versionusesthe computercontrolledsynthesizedspeechprogram.In bothmodes,threetrials of numberswere presented,each trial containingincreasinglyrapid time intervalsbetween
—.
92
Abstractsfrom the 17thAnnualMeeting
numbers.Both versionsbegin with 2.8-secondintervalsbetweennumbers,gettingprogressively faster by 0.1 second,until the last pair of numbersis presentedwith a 0.4-second interval.Subjectswereinstructedto verbalizeeach sumwithoutskippingany.Pilottestswere conductedwith head injuredadultswith concentrationdeficits.Preliminaryresultsindicate that this alternativeversion of the PASATmay effectivelycapture deficits among higher functioningadults. Nelson,L., & Do, T. Using the MMPI-2 in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis.
This is a first-everstudy applyingGass’ neurocorrectionprocedureto the MMPI-2 in a sampleof patientswith MultipleSclerosis.Fifty subjectsparticipatedin this study.Conditions included Chronic-Progressiveand Relapsing-Remitting.Other tests were used as criterionmeasuresagainstwhichresultsbasedon the standardand neurocorrectedversionof theMMPI-2werecompared.ThesetestsincludedtheNeuropsychologyBehaviorandAffect Profile,designedto be completedby a relativerespondentaboutthe patient,and a modified version of the MMPI-2 DepressionScale, designed to be also completedby a relative respondent.Resultssupportedconcurrentvalidityof the MMPI-2DepressionScale, across both patient and relative respondents.Results further demonstratedsignificantdecreases acrossthreemajorMMPI-2Scales(Scales2, 7, and 8) in termsof T-scoreswhenthe testwas neurocorrectedusingGass’procedure.Neurocorrectedresultswerewithinnormallimits.Age effectswere also examined,supportingdecreaseddepressionin older subjects.The importance of consideringa neurocorrectionapproachin populationswhere neurologicalconditions includehigh base rates of physicalsymptomswas stressed.In these cases, using the MMPI-2may producefalse-positiveindicationsof pathologicalemotionalfunctioning. Nelson,L., Satz, P., Drebing,C., & Uchiyama,C. Personali@ Change Following Head Trauma: A Test Validity Study.
This studyrepresentsthe first attemptto cross-validateand report on the Neuropsychology BehaviorandAffectProfile(NBAP)usingclosedhead injury(CHI)participants.TheNBAP is designedto measureemotionalfunctioningbeforeand followinga brain event.Two CHI samples, differing primarily by method of ascertainment,were compared to a group of normal controls. Results provided support for concurrentand predictivevalidity of this measure of emotional functioningacross both CHI samples. A relatively new finding emergedwhich suggestedsignificantlyhigherlevelsof premorbidemotionalfunctioningin clinic-referredCHI patients comparedto CHI individualsnot seeking treatment (strictly researchparticipants).The possibilityof exaggeratedemotionallevelsin CHI clinicpatients was raised. Ogden,M. L., Lacritz,L. H., & Cullum,C. M. Qualitative Assessment of Semantic and Phonemic Fluency in Aging and Dementia.
Clinicalinterpretationof verbalfluencyperformancehas typicallyrelied more on quantitative than qualitativeanalyses,using total number of words generatedin a specifiedtime intervalto evaluatepatients’performances.This studyexaminedthe trends and diagnostic utilityof a qualitativescoringtechniquefor semantic(Animal)and phonemic(FAS)fluency tasksin patientswithAlzheimer’sDisease(AD;N = 82) and Parkinson’sDisease(PD;N = 64), as well as in a group of healthy elderly controls (ENC; N = 65). The groups were comparedon three componentsof generativenamingas originallydefinedby Troyeret al. (1997):(1) numberof wordsproduced,(2) clustering(i.e., ratio of wordsgeneratedwithin subcategories),and (3) switching(i.e.,frequencyof shiftsbetweenclusters).In termsof total number of words produced,controlswere superiorto the patient groups on both fluency