Two experiments examined the structure of individual differences in mice by means of tasks that produced significant acquisition within 1 session. In Experiment 1, 5 cognitive tasks-detour, winshift, olfactory discrimination, fear conditioning, and operant acquisition-were used in conjunction with two control procedures: an open field and a light- dark test. In Experiment 2, some modifications were made to the tasks used in the 1st experiment, and 3 new tasks were used in conjunction with the same control procedures. The battery consisted of 5 learning tasks: detour, Hebb-Williams, radial maze, olfactory foraging, and fear conditioning. Results of both experiments indicate that when cognitive tasks and control procedures were included in principal-components analyses most of the variance attached principally to individual tasks rather than to a general component as is found typically in human cognitive batteries. When control procedures were eliminated, there was better evidence for the presence of a general cognitive factor, particularly in Experiment 2.
There are no accepted guidelines establishing the most sensitive neuropsychological methods to define memory impairment in mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We investigated whether similar impairment rates were observed between the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R) and Logical Memory (LM) in 90 patients with amnestic or amnestic plus MCI. On HVLT-R delayed recall, 80% of participants performed in the MCI range compared to only 32.2% on LM II. The same pattern was seen for both amnestic and amnestic plus subtypes. Individuals impaired on HVLT-R delayed recall performed significantly worse on LM first recall and on delayed recall of LM Story A than those not impaired. MCI patients with executive dysfunction performed significantly worse than patients with no executive impairment on both LM I and HVLT-R Total Learning, but not for delayed recall of either measure. Future studies can address the longitudinal course of impairment on these measures.
Symptom validity assessment is an important part of neuropsychological evaluation. There are currently several free-standing symptom validity tests (SVTs), as well as a number of empirically derived embedded validity indices, that have been developed to assess that an examinee is putting forth an optimal level of effort during testing. The use of embedded validity indices is attractive since they do not increase overall testing time and may also be less vulnerable to coaching. In addition, there are some instances where embedded validity indices are the only tool available to the neuropsychological practitioner for assessing an examinee's level of effort. As with free-standing measures, the sensitivity and specificity of embedded validity indices to suboptimal effort varies. The present study evaluated the diagnostic validity of 17 embedded validity indices by comparing performance on these indices to performance on combinations of free-standing SVTs. Results from the current medico-legal sample revealed that of the embedded validity indices, Reliable Digit Span had the best classification accuracy; however, the findings do not support the use of this embedded validity index in the absence of free-standing SVTs.
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