Reading comprehension in dementia of the Alzheimer's type : factual versus inferential

Abstract

1 Leonard CainThe purpose of this study was to investigate the reading comprehension abilities of those with mild and moderate dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) and compare their performance to that of a sample of non-demented elderly. Thirty-eight male subjects were used, 20 nondemented elderly, nine mild DAT and nine moderate DA1'. All were administered level B of the NRST. This test contains questions requiring three levels of inference:literal, translational, and high-level inference.Results indicated that the non-demented elderly subjects consistently performed significantly better than either of the demented groups in all areas of performance.The mildly demented performed consistently better than the moderately demented across all levels of performance. The exception was that no significant difference was seen between the demented groups in translational scores. The results did not indicate the predicted pattern of best performance on literal questions and worst performance on high level inference questions for all subjects. This raised questions about the validity of the NRST and its ability to differentiate between levels of inference.

Reading comprehension of literal, translational, and high inference level questions in aphasic and right hemisphere damaged adults

“…Each subject was given the NRST, one passage at a time, and asked to read each passage aloud. This procedure was the same as that adopted by Graville (1989) MEASUREMENT AND DATA ANALYSIS SYSTAT (Wilkinson, 1986) (Table VII). However, a comparison of performance on high inference level items between the two groups approached significance (df, 1, 30; p = 0.052).…”

“…Instead, reading comprehension has been the subject of assessment. Graville (1989) describes the understanding of factual or literal and of inferred information as an ability necessary for comprehension. Myers (1985) distinguishes between explicit and implicit meanings of words or symbols.…”