Semantic category and initial letter word fluency in left-brain-damaged patients

“Actions speak louder than words.” Although clinician’s behavioral evaluations of dementia most often include assessing episodic memory, declarative memories (e.g., naming and calculating), and executive functions (working memory, letter–word fluency), one of the most important functions of the brain is programing actions, including “how” to move and “when” to move. Patients with Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, and other forms of dementia often have impairments in the systems that mediate these how-apraxic and when-intentional behaviors. Although the presence of these apraxic and action-intentional disorders may help with diagnosis and help doctors gain a better understand these patients’ disability, these functions are rarely tested and are often not well understood. The goal of this chapter is to describe the signs of the various types of apraxic disorders (limb-kinetic, ideomotor, conceptual, ideational, and dissociation) and well as action-intentional disorders (akinesia-hypokinesia, impersistence, perseveration, and defective response inhibition), how to test for these disorders, and their pathophysiology.

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Impaired initial vowel versus consonant letter-word fluency in dementia of the Alzheimer type

Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1080/17588928.2013.854200 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 4 (3-4) ◽

pp. 163-170 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hura Behforuzi ◽

D. Brandon Burtis ◽

John B. Williamson ◽

Jennifer J. Stamps ◽

Kenneth M. Heilman

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer Type ◽

Word Fluency ◽

Letter Word ◽

Consonant Letter

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Quantitative and Qualitative Scores on Dream Test

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/pms.1996.83.3.867 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 83 (3) ◽

pp. 867-880 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Momčilo Živkovič

Keyword(s):

Women Students ◽

Test Score ◽

Word Association ◽

Association Test ◽

Dream Content ◽

Initial Letter ◽

Letter Word ◽

Word Association Test ◽

Quantitative Score ◽

The Mean

A quantitative Dream Test score is defined as the ratio of the number of the key dream words selected by a subject and given a plus sign to the number of the dream words given minus sign as is done on the Initial-letter Word-association Test. The mean quantitative Dream Test score is 2+/3- with a slight prevalence of minus over plus signs and the mean number of selected key dream words of 5. The qualitative Dream Test score was formulated to represent the dream categories and subcategories in which individual dreams are classified according to manifest dream content. From a sample of 122 dreams reported by 122 women, students in psychology ( M age 20 yr.), dreams were categorized as Death (27 or 22.0%), Nightmares (53 or 43.1%), Love (35 or 28.3%), Atypical dreams (7 or 57%), and No dreams (1 or .8%). The most frequent qualitative Dream Test score was for Nightmares which is in accord with the slight prevalence of minus over plus signs in the Dream Test mean quantitative score.

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Dream Test

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/pms.1982.55.3.935 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 55 (3) ◽

pp. 935-938 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Momčilo Živković

Keyword(s):

Content Analysis ◽

Word Association ◽

Association Test ◽

Dream Content ◽

Initial Letter ◽

Word Associations ◽

Letter Word ◽

Word Association Test

A method of analysing dreams, called the Dream Test and utilizing the Initial Letter Word Association Test, was presented. Four interpreting rules were discussed, taking into account manifest dream content, Freud's and Jung's symbolism, associations, and Hall and Van de Castle's content analysis of dreams. In this way data from the Dream Test and the initial-letter word associations are analysed in a way which makes possible verification of each interpretation taken separately from either test.

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