Portland Digit Recognition Test Performance by Brain Dysfunction Patients without Financial Incentives

Assessment ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence M. Binder ◽  
Mark P. Kelly

The Portland Digit Recognition Test (PDRT) is a neuropsychological measure of motivation. In an extension of previous work, we report PDRT data on 120 patients with brain dysfunction who had no financial incentives for their performance. Percentile distributions, sensitivity and specificity data, and cognitive and demographic correlates are reported. Age, race, and etiology of brain dysfunction (traumatic or nontraumatic) were unrelated to PDRT performance. Education level was significantly related to PDRT scores. Although IQ and verbal memory performance were related to PDRT scores, the PDRT cutoff scores appear valid for brain dysfunction patients with severe cognitive dysfunction.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minna Alenius ◽  
Sanna Koskinen ◽  
Ilona Hallikainen ◽  
Tiia Ngandu ◽  
Jari Lipsanen ◽  
...  

Background/Aims: To detect cognitive decline in older adults, measures of verbal fluency and verbal memory are widely used. Less is known about performance in these measures in younger persons or according to education level and gender. We investigated cognitive performance according to age, education and gender among cognitively healthy adults aged 30–100 years. Methods: The study population comprised 4,174 cognitively healthy persons participating in the nationally representative Finnish Health 2011 survey. Cognitive assessment included verbal fluency, word list memory, word list recall and word list savings from the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease neuropsychological battery. Results: Total variance in the cognitive test performance explained by age, education and gender varied from 12.3 to 31.2%. A decreasing trend in cognitive performance existed in all subtests by advancing age, with differences appearing between 50 and 55 years. Persons with the highest-education level performed best for all measures. For the participants < 55 years, education explained part of the variance, while age and gender did not. Conclusions: When assessing cognition, age and education should be accounted for in more detail in research and clinical practice. Additionally, the cohort effect and its potential impact on the renewal cycle of future normative values for cognitive tests should be considered.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 466-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura J. Grande ◽  
Meghan E. Robinson ◽  
Lauren J. Radigan ◽  
Laura K. Levin ◽  
Catherine B. Fortier ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectives:This study investigated the relationship between close proximity to detonated blast munitions and cognitive functioning in OEF/OIF/OND Veterans.Methods:A total of 333 participants completed a comprehensive evaluation that included assessment of neuropsychological functions, psychiatric diagnoses and history of military and non-military brain injury. Participants were assigned to a Close-Range Blast Exposure (CBE) or Non-Close-Range Blast Exposure (nonCBE) group based on whether they had reported being exposed to at least one blast within 10 meters.Results:Groups were compared on principal component scores representing the domains of memory, verbal fluency, and complex attention (empirically derived from a battery of standardized cognitive tests), after adjusting for age, education, PTSD diagnosis, sleep quality, substance abuse disorder, and pain. The CBE group showed poorer performance on the memory component. Rates of clinical impairment were significantly higher in the CBE group on select CVLT-II indices. Exploratory analyses examined the effects of concussion and multiple blasts on test performance and revealed that number of lifetime concussions did not contribute to memory performance. However, accumulating blast exposures at distances greater than 10 meters did contribute to poorer performance.Conclusions:Close proximity to detonated blast munitions may impact memory, and Veterans exposed to close-range blast are more likely to demonstrate clinically meaningful deficits. These findings were observed after statistically adjusting for comorbid factors. Results suggest that proximity to blast should be considered when assessing for memory deficits in returning Veterans. Comorbid psychiatric factors may not entirely account for cognitive difficulties. (JINS, 2018,24, 466–475)


1982 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Rogoff

Cross-cultural literature suggests that schooling's effect on cognitive test performance is due to school's reliance on instruction using language removed from its everyday context, in contrast with informal instruction using demonstration of skills. The present study takes advantage of variability in use of verbal instruction and demonstration by mothers teaching their 9-year-olds, in order to test the relation of mode of instruction to memory test performance. In study 1, with 31 children from a society (Highland Mayan) in which much of children's learning occurs through observation, maternal mode of instruction was highly predictive of performance on two verbal memory tests. However, mode of instruction was unrelated to performance on two scene memory tests. Thus, mode of instruction has specific predictiveness to verbal memory skills but not memory performance in general. Study 2 replicated study 1 with 30 U.S. children, and found that the U.S. mothers provided more verbal instruction and less demonstration than the Mayan mothers. In study 2, mode of instruction was not predictive of the children's memory test performance. This may be due to the U.S. children's exposure to a high level of verbal instruction rather than demonstration, a threshold above which further variation is unpredictive. The question whether exposure to verbal instruction vs. demonstration accounts for some of the demonstrated effects of schooling on test performance is answered with a qualified "yes": There is a relationship between maternal mode of instruction and test performance but only for tests relying on verbal material and for children whose exposure to verbal instruction is not as extreme as in Western culture. The effect is not general, and is contextually influenced.


2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 68-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sibylle Heinze ◽  
Gudrun Sartory ◽  
Bernhard W. Müller ◽  
Armin de Greiff ◽  
Michael Forsting ◽  
...  

Neuroimaging studies have indicated involvement of left prefrontal cortex and temporal areas in verbal memory processes. The current study used event-related functional neuroimaging to compare encoding of subsequently recalled and not recalled words in high and low memory performers. Fifteen healthy volunteers were given lists of words to learn with immediate recall and to read as a control condition. High performers reported to have visualized the words whereas low performers used a rehearsal strategy. Compared to reading, unsuccessful encoding was associated with thalamic and left premotor area (BA 6) activity. Comparing successful with unsuccessful learning yielded widespread activity of the left prefrontal and posterior temporal gyrus as well as the left superior parietal lobe in the whole group. Low performers showed activation of the left premotor area throughout learning and additionally of the left middle temporal and parahippocampal gyrus during successful encoding. High performers showed increased activation in the extrastriate cortex throughout learning and additionally in the left parietal post- and paracentral areas as well as in the right precuneus during successful encoding. The results suggest that high verbal memory performance is the result of spatiovisual activation concomitant to imagery and low performance of hippocampal and motor activation, the latter being associated with rehearsal, with a common memory circuit subserving both groups.


2010 ◽  
Vol 218 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Slawomira J. Diener ◽  
Herta Flor ◽  
Michèle Wessa

Impairments in declarative memory have been reported in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Fragmentation of explicit trauma-related memory has been assumed to impede the formation of a coherent memorization of the traumatic event and the integration into autobiographic memory. Together with a strong non-declarative memory that connects trauma reminders with a fear response the impairment in declarative memory is thought to be involved in the maintenance of PTSD symptoms. Fourteen PTSD patients, 14 traumatized subjects without PTSD, and 13 non-traumatized healthy controls (HC) were tested with the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) to assess verbal declarative memory. PTSD symptoms were assessed with the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale and depression with the Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Several indices of the CVLT pointed to an impairment in declarative memory performance in PTSD, but not in traumatized persons without PTSD or HC. No group differences were observed if recall of memory after a time delay was set in relation to initial learning performance. In the PTSD group verbal memory performance correlated significantly with hyperarousal symptoms, after concentration difficulties were accounted for. The present study confirmed previous reports of declarative verbal memory deficits in PTSD. Extending previous results, we propose that learning rather than memory consolidation is impaired in PTSD patients. Furthermore, arousal symptoms may interfere with successful memory formation in PTSD.


2020 ◽  
Vol 228 (4) ◽  
pp. 264-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan E. Mitton ◽  
Chris M. Fiacconi

Abstract. To date there has been relatively little research within the domain of metamemory that examines how individuals monitor their performance during memory tests, and whether the outcome of such monitoring informs subsequent memory predictions for novel items. In the current study, we sought to determine whether spontaneous monitoring of test performance can in fact help individuals better appreciate their memory abilities, and in turn shape future judgments of learning (JOLs). Specifically, in two experiments we examined recognition memory for visual images across three study-test cycles, each of which contained novel images. We found that across cycles, participants’ JOLs did in fact increase, reflecting metacognitive sensitivity to near-perfect levels of recognition memory performance. This finding suggests that individuals can and do monitor their test performance in the absence of explicit feedback, and further underscores the important role that test experience can play in shaping metacognitive evaluations of learning and remembering.


2021 ◽  
pp. 019394592110297
Author(s):  
Graham J. McDougall ◽  
Todd B. Monroe ◽  
Keenan A. Pituch ◽  
Michael A. Carter ◽  
Laurie Abbott

Cultural stereotypes that equate aging with decreased competence and increased forgetfulness have persisted for decades. Stereotype threat (ST) refers to the psychological discomfort people experience when confronted by a negative, self-relevant stereotype in a situation where their behavior could be construed as confirming that belief. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of ST on memory performance in older adults over 24 months. The ST levels on average significantly declined, or improved in the memory training, but not the health training group. Although not significant at the .01 level, the bivariate correlation indicated that change in ST was moderately related to change in verbal memory, suggesting the possibility that improvements (or reductions) in ST may be related to increases in verbal memory scores. We discovered that the unique contribution of ST into the memory performance of healthy older adults offers a possible malleable trait.


Author(s):  
Jairo E. Martinez ◽  
Enmanuelle Pardilla-Delgado ◽  
Edmarie Guzmán-Vélez ◽  
Clara Vila-Castelar ◽  
Rebecca Amariglio ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective: Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) may be an early indicator of risk for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Findings regarding sex differences in SCD are inconsistent. Studying sex differences in SCD within cognitively unimpaired individuals with autosomal-dominant AD (ADAD), who will develop dementia, may inform sex-related SCD variations in preclinical AD. We examined sex differences in SCD within cognitively unimpaired mutation carriers from the world’s largest ADAD kindred and sex differences in the relationship between SCD and memory performance. Methods: We included 310 cognitively unimpaired Presenilin-1 (PSEN-1) E280A mutation carriers (51% females) and 1998 noncarrier family members (56% females) in the study. Subjects and their study partners completed SCD questionnaires and the CERAD word list delayed recall test. ANCOVAs were conducted to examine group differences in SCD, sex, and memory performance. In carriers, partial correlations were used to examine associations between SCD and memory performance covarying for education. Results: Females in both groups had greater self-reported and study partner-reported SCD than males (all p < 0.001). In female mutation carriers, greater self-reported (p = 0.02) and study partner-reported SCD (p < 0.001) were associated with worse verbal memory. In male mutation carriers, greater self-reported (p = 0.03), but not study partner-reported SCD (p = 0.11) was associated with worse verbal memory. Conclusions: Study partner-reported SCD may be a stronger indicator of memory decline in females versus males in individuals at risk for developing dementia. Future studies with independent samples and preclinical trials should consider sex differences when recruiting based on SCD criteria.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie H. Balldin ◽  
James R. Hall ◽  
Robert C. Barber ◽  
Linda Hynan ◽  
Ramon Diaz-Arrastia ◽  
...  

Background. Considerable research documents an association between pro- and anti-inflammatory markers and Alzheimer's disease (AD), yet the differential relation between these markers and neuropsychological functioning in AD and nondemented controls has received less attention. The current study sought to evaluate the relationship between peripheral markers of inflammation (both pro- and anti-inflammatory) and neuropsychological functioning through the Texas Alzheimer's Research and Care Consortium (TARCC) cohort.Methods. There were 320 participants (Probable ADn=124, Controlsn=196) in the TARCC Longitudinal Research Cohort available for analysis. Regression analyses were utilized to examine the relation between proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory markers and neuropsychological functioning. Follow-up analyses were conducted separately by case versus control status.Results. Proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory markers were found to be associated with neuropsychological testing. Third tertile proinflammatory markers were negatively associated with measures of attention and language, and anti-inflammatory markers were positively associated with measures of immediate verbal memory and delayed verbal and visual memory.Conclusions. These findings support the link between peripheral inflammatory markers and neuropsychological functioning and suggest the utility of examining profiles of inflammatory markers in the future.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document