Performance of elderly on the three words-three shapes test: A Brazilian study

Abstract

The three words-three shapes test is a brief bedside technique for assessment of learning and memory using verbal and non-verbal material. To the best of our knowledge, performance of Brazilian elderly on this test has not yet been reported.ObjectiveTo evaluate the performance of normal Brazilian elderly on the three words-three shapes test.MethodA total of 50 adult patients, 25 males and 25 females, with age ranging from 55 to 81 years (66.0±7.10 years), 1 to 8 years of schooling, different economic conditions and living in the São José do Rio Preto municipality, State of São Paulo, were evaluated.ResultsThere was no statistically significant difference between performance of males and females. Performance on incidental recall was significantly lower than in delayed recall. The performance in the learning phase improved following at least two further presentations of the stimuli. Approximately 50% of the participants did not remember the six stimuli and had to proceed to the recognition stage. The performance in the recognition stage was significantly better than during spontaneous recall. Patients with low educational level (less years of schooling) had poorer performance on the recall of shapes and on the total score of the test.ConclusionsThe three words-three shapes test is rapid, efficient and straightforward to apply in the elderly, but low educational level was associated with poorer performance on this test. Normal elderly individuals had greater difficulty in the encoding process and in searching for stored information.

Verbal and Nonverbal Memory in Neurodegenerative and Stroke Aphasia: Evidence From the Turkish Version of the Three Words Three Shapes Test

“…Successful international versions of the 3W3S Test have been reported. The Brazilian version of the 3W3S Test was used to reveal memory patterns in a cognitively healthy elderly population, and education level was found to be related to test performance, particularly for nonverbal stimuli (Armentano and Quayle, 2007). The Turkish version of the 3W3S Test (3W3S-Turkish) was developed and successfully validated in a cognitively healthy elderly population of 236 individuals (Kudiaki and Aslan, 2007).…”