Objective: To develop and validate a verbal (sign-based) test of learning and memory for individuals who are deaf. Method: Completed test development, determined performance norms, investigated correlation with IQ, and evaluated discriminant validity in healthy versus clinical participant samples. Participants: Thirty-eight deaf adults screened as free from brain impairment and 35 deaf adults referred for cognitive testing. Outcome measure: Signed Paired Associates Test (SPAT). Results: Healthy participant norms were similar to pilot study norms. SPAT performance was correlated with IQ. The healthy sample scored significantly better than the clinical sample on all 13 SPAT performance elements analyzed. Performance patterns paralleled those commonly found with other tests of verbal learning and memory. Conclusions: SPAT shows utility as a test of verbal learning and memory for sign language users and evidence of validity in detecting verbal cognitive impairment in that population.
There have been few studies of psychogenic amnesia based on a cognitive or neuropsychological framework. In the present study, a patient with acute onset of profound psychogenic retrograde amnesia was examined. Although her performance on neuropsychological tasks revealed intact anterograde memory, language functioning, visuospatial and constructional skills, and mental speed and flexibility, she displayed severe impairments on a variety of retrograde memory tasks. Furthermore, initial observations revealed inconsistencies between the patient’s recall of semantic knowledge on direct questioning and her ability to demonstrate the use of this knowledge on indirect tasks. To test this formally, we devised an indirect remote knowledge task to examine a possible dissociation between explicit and implicit memory. Two healthy subjects matched for age, gender, education, occupation, and estimated IQ were also tested. As predicted, the findings demonstrate implicit knowledge despite impaired explicit recall for the same material. (JINS, 1996, 2, 146–158.)
Objective: To develop a test of American Sign Language (ASL) prose recall, modeled after the Logical Memory subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale. Method: Two ASL stories were developed and presented to participants, whose verbatim recall in immediate and delayed conditions was videotaped. Three ASL-fluent raters scored the responses. Recall scores were correlated with performance IQ (PIQ) and Signed Paired Associate Test (SPAT) results. Participants: 41 ASL-fluent deaf adults. Outcome Measures: ASL Stories Test, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test PIQ, SPAT. Results: Mean recall scores for the 2 stories were 58% and 66% (immediate condition, a significant difference) and 63% and 68% (delayed condition, also a significant difference), respectively. Interrater reliability coefficients ranged from .77 to .94. Immediate and delayed recall scores for the 1st story correlated with PIQ. Combined ASL story recall scores correlated with more challenging elements of the SPAT. Conclusions: The 1st ASL story was more difficult than the 2nd. Reliability scores, correlations with PIQ and SPAT performance, and other test properties that are comparable to the Logical Memory subtest suggest the ASL Stories Test shows promise as a verbal memory research and clinical evaluation tool with deaf individuals who use ASL.
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