MEMORY ASSESSMENT in the
LAB vs. the CLINIC
• Laboratory goals:
– Address theoretical questions about
memory forms and processes
– Determine population mean & variance
• Clinical goals:
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Detailed “case description”
Diagnosis (Organic? Malingerer?)
Prognosis for rehabilitation
Determining therapy
Assessing change in condition
• Types of Memory Tests:
– Clinical need for standardized, normed
– Experimental need for “special
purpose” tests
CRITERIA FOR CLINICAL TESTS
Standardized tests should be…
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Reliable
Valid
Sensitive
Sample wide range of..
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Retention intervals
Verbal , nonverbal
Simple and complex
Old memory and new learning
Quantitative and qualitative measures
“modes” of response
• Normed by age, IQ, etc
• “Patient friendly”
– Quick and engaging
CLINICAL MEMORY BATTERIES
• Wechsler Memory Scale III (1997)
– Orientation (How old are you? Who’s governor
of Florida?)
– Mental Control (recite the months of the year)
– Immediate Memory Span and Working
memory (serial recall and sequencing of
letters, digits, positions)
– Logical Memory (immediate and delayed
recall of prose passages)
– Configural Memory (recognition of faces and
family pictures, immediate and delayed)
• Wechsler Memory Scale III (1997)
– Evaluation:
• Tests new learning only
• Well normed, most popular test
• Normed against WAIS (an IQ test)
• Takes nearly an hour to administer
• No alternative forms for assessing
change
WMS Index
WAIS
FSIQ WM
Immediate Memory
.57
.44
General Memory
.60
.47
Working Memory
.68
.82
% Y variance accounted for by X =
r2(X,Y)
• Rivermead Everday Memory Test
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Orientation (place, time and personal)
Verbal Recall (list of names)
Spatial Recall (set of hidden objects)
Spatial Route Recall (immediate and
delayed)
– Immediate Recognition (of pictures and
faces)
– Story Recall (immediate and delayed)
– Prospective Memory (ask a specific
question when cue is given)
– Evaluation:
• Tests new learning only
• Good reliability and face validity
• Four forms for assessing change
• Takes less than 30 minutes to administer
• Good “prognostic sensitivity”
• Baddeley Battery (!) for Verbal and
Nonverbal Information
– Peoples Test (photos, occupations, and
names of four people; cued recall)
– Shapes Test (copy and later recall four
versions of abstract forms)
– Names Test (recognition for 12 names,
4AFC (Matt Brownell, Mark Brownhill..)
– Doors Test (recognition of 12 doors with
varied molding)
– Evaluation:
• Tests new learning only
• Good distinction between visual-spatial
and verbal materials
• Quick and friendly
• No delayed recognition
• Limited norming so far
• Kopelman Memory Interviews
– Personal Semantic Memory Schedule
(schools, friends, personal facts from
various life periods)
– Autobiographical Incidents (cued recall
of particular episodes from specific periods)
– Famous Personalities Test (Names and
faces of famous and unknown persons by
decade
– News Events Test (cued recall of details of
pictured events by decade)
– Dead-or-Alive Test (!) (names of famous
people by decade: dead or alive?)
– Evaluation:
• Tests prior knowledge (retrograde)
• Good range of retention intervals
• Mostly verbal knowledge
• Needs re-norming every few years
• Difficulty of validating personal info
Factor Analysis of Clinical
Memory Tests
• Hunkin, et al. (2000)
– WMS-R and several other tests given to
50 patients with range of impairments
– Assess correlations among scores, e.g.:
• WMS-Verbal with:
– WMS-Visual
– WMS-Delay
– WRMT-Words
– WRMT-Faces
– D&P doors
+.49
+.75
+.54
+.16
+.30
– Derive independent factors for
• Immediate versus delayed
• Recall versus recognition
• Verbal versus visual for recognition, not
recall
• Summary of Clinical Batteries
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Wide range of memory systems tested
Provides clinician with standard toolkit
Problem of ceiling and floor effects
Challenge of different norming groups
Complements ad hoc tests