Factor structure of the Luria 90 in a neuropsychological battery

Factor structure of the Luria 90 in a neuropsychological battery

96 Abstractsfmm the 17thAnnualMeeting & Haak, in preparation).The TVCF is comprised of four subtests measuring fluency, attentionand concentration,a...

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96

Abstractsfmm the 17thAnnualMeeting

& Haak, in preparation).The TVCF is comprised of four subtests measuring fluency, attentionand concentration,and set-shiftingwith rule induction.The tasks includecategorical naming,letter naming,number-wordassociationand sequencing,and set-shiftingvia card sortingbasedon printedwordsratherthan symbols,similarin formatto the Wisconsin Card SortingTest.A totalof 140adultsrangingin agefrom60 yearsto 89 yearswere tested. Scoresfor the scalewere comparedacross 10-yearincrementsusing GeneralLinearModel proceduresfor unbalancedMultivariateAnalysisof Variance.Educationeffects were explored using MultivariateAnalysisof Covariance.Performancedeclinedconsistentlywith age on all tasks exceptLetter Naming,indicatinggreaterstabilityafter some early decline. Potentialuses of the task for futureinvestigationare proposed. Hsieh,J., & Riley,N. Neuropsychological Pe~ormance in the People’s Republic of China: Age and Education Norms for Four Attention Tasks.

This study extendspreviouswork on collectionof normativedata for standardneuropsychologicaltests in the People’sRepublicof China.Focusingon measuresof attentionand processing speed, we collected data on the following tests: Digit Span, Symbol Digit ModalitiesTest,TrailsA, and ColoredTrailmakingTest.Taskswere selectedto includeboth oraland writtenresponsemodalities.The normativesampleconsistedof 177urban-dwelling, Mandarin speakingadults. Subjectswere recruited across a broad range of occupational categoriesand spannedfive agegroupsrangingfromearly30’sto 70 and above.Educational levelswere classifiedaccordingto the Chinesesystemof primary(l-6 years),middleschool (7-9 years),and high school(10-12 years).Males and femaleswere equallyrepresented. As expected,performanceon all taskswas relatedto subjects’age and educationallevel. Comparisonof the Chinesedata to publishednormsrevealsscoresof young Chinesewith high schooleducationto be roughlycomparableto that of similarlyagedand educatedNorth Americans.However,significantdifferenceswere observedbetweenthe scoresobtainedfor middle aged and elderly residentsof the People’sRepublicof China and norms for older North Americans.We relate these discrepanciesto the limitededucationalopportunitiesof older Chineseand later disruptionof the educationalsystemcaused by the CulturalRevolution of 1966-76. Cliniciansassessingcognitivefunctioningof older Chinese should be aware of these disjunctionsin normativeperformance.To clarify the relationshipbetween age, education,and neuropsychologicalperformance,we have recentlybegun collectionof data on a select sampleof older,highlyeducatedurban Chinese. Schafer,V.,Mercer,W.N., Ben@son,M. L., Childs,H. W.,Fisk,J. L., & DelDotto,J. F. Factor Structure of the Luria 90 in a Neumpsychological Battery.

The factor structureof an experimentalmeasure of memory (Luria 90) in a battery of neuropsychologicaltests was exploredin a sampleof 185patientswith intractableepilepsy. The Luria 90 includesan auditorymemoryand visualmemoryseriescombinedfor a total score.Eighty-twomalesand 138femaleswere includedin the final sample.The majorityof subjectswere right handed (89%). Using an obliquerotation,factor analysisidentified5 factors: visual memory, verbal memory, language and communication,visuomotor,and motor speed. The auditorymemory,visual memory,and compositememory score of the Luria 90 all loaded significantlyon the visual motor factor; however,modestcorrelations withfiguralreproduction(r= .53)andthe RAVLT(r= .51)werenoted.Ourfindingssuggest that, in a clinicalpopulation,the Luria 90 does not delineateauditoryand visualmemory. Future studies should examinenot only the internal factor structureof the Luria 90 but expandthe populationto addresspossibleproblemswith restrictedrange.