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Edith Kaplan

Publications and source records attributed to Edith Kaplan.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

Speed and memory in the WAIS-III Digit Symbol--Coding subtest across the adult lifespan.

The primary role of speed in determining Digit Symbol scores is well established. Among the important questions that remain to be resolved are: (1) whether speed accounts for all of the age-related decline in Digit Symbol scores, and (2) whether memory ability makes any significant contribution to Digit Symbol performance, especially after controlling for speed. We analyzed data from the WAIS-III/WMS-III standardization sample to resolve these issues. As expected, speed (Digit Symbol-Copy) correlated very strongly with Digit Symbol--Coding. Memory (Digit Symbol--Incidental Learning or WMS-III index scores) correlated more moderately with Digit Symbol-Coding. Even after controlling for variance in Coding explained by Copying, a statistically significant proportion of the residual variance was explicable in terms of memory functions. The contribution of memory to Digit Symbol--Coding, while relatively small, is real. In addition, a small portion of the age-associated decline in Coding scores cannot be accounted for by Copying scores.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

The Biber Cognitive Estimation Test.

Normative data from 113 participants, and cross-validation data from 49 additional participants, are presented for the Biber Cognitive Estimation Test (BCET), a 20-item test with five estimation questions in each of four categories: time/duration, quantity, weight, and distance. In Study 1, the range of normal answers is provided for each item, and a cut-off for impaired performance is suggested. Although very low IQ or education levels would be expected to invalidate this test as a measure of estimation skills, participants in the current sample made few errors. In Study 2, a cross-validation suggested a slightly more conservative cut-off score for abnormality. Study 3 examined cognitive estimation in demented (dementia of the Alzheimer's type and dementia syndrome of Parkinson's disease) versus intact elderly participants. Results indicated that the BCET was able to distinguish between demented and intact elderly participants.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Global-local visual processing in posttraumatic stress disorder.

The purpose of this study was to examine a behavioral index of hemispheric asymmetry (i.e., visual hierarchical attention) in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a disorder characterized by anxiety and other emotional symptoms. A reaction time based, computerized, global-local visual paradigm was administered to 26 PTSD-diagnosed and 22 psychopathology-free right-handed, male Vietnam War zone veterans. Results indicated that PTSD-diagnosed veterans displayed slower reaction times to all targets than the no-mental disorders comparison sample. However, findings also revealed a Group x Target location interaction in which the PTSD group was slower than the no-disorders comparison sample to respond to local, but not global, targets. Moreover, relative global bias was greater among PTSD-diagnosed veterans than their no-diagnosis counterparts. Findings provide partial support for the hypothesis that PTSD may be associated with a functional cerebral asymmetry favoring the right hemisphere.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2003

Digit Symbol-Incidental Learning in the WAIS-III: construct validity and clinical significance.

We analyzed WAIS-III/WMS-III standardization data for evidence of the construct validity and clinical utility of the Digit Symbol-Incidental Learning procedures (Pairing and Free Recall). Scores on both tests correlated moderately with WMS-III memory index scores (mean r=.38 for Pairing and .36 for Free Recall). Cutoff scores can be used to identify younger and older adults likely to suffer from memory impairment. In the standardization sample (which excludes neurological patients), these have moderate positive predictive power (averaging .56 if either test yields a positive finding), moderate negative predictive power (.76), and high specificity (.88), but low sensitivity (.35). In a clinical sample, the same cutoff scores were much more sensitive, correctly identifying 88% of a group of patients with Alzheimer's Disease. Examinees who obtain these low scores should receive follow-up memory testing. Very high scores are associated with a reduced risk of memory impairment.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Decoding digit symbol: speed, memory, and visual scanning.

The authors evaluated the relative contributions of speed, memory, and visual scanning to Digit Symbol score in a sample of young adults (N = 87). Speed (Symbol Copy) explained 35% of Digit Symbol variance; only half of this was attributable to graphomotor speed (Name Printing), implying a role for perceptual speed. Visual-scanning tests (e.g., Symbol Scan) explained (on average) 34% of Digit Symbol variance, much of which was independent of perceptual-motor speed, establishing an important role for visual-scanning efficiency in Digit Symbol performance. By contrast, memory tests (on average) explained only 4% to 5% of Digit Symbol variance: statistically significant but clearly subsidiary, although a visual memory composite correlated more strongly with Digit Symbol. The Digit Symbol incidental learning procedures did, however, correlate moderately with other memory measures, suggesting that they are valid memory screening devices.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Capacity to maintain mental set in dementia.

Two experiments investigating the capacity to sustain mental set in dementia were conducted. Experiment 1 analyzed performance of a non-demented control group (NC), participants with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and participants with ischemic vascular dementia (IVD) on the Boston Revision of the Wechsler Memory Scale Mental Control subtest (MC). On simple tasks there were no between-group differences after controlling for time to completion. On complex tasks, NC participants outperformed both dementia groups and AD participants obtained higher accuracy indices than IVD participants. The IVD group produced a disproportionate number of commission errors regardless of task complexity. The AD group tended to produce more omission errors on more difficult measures of mental set. Individual task performance was divided into three sections-first, middle, and last. IVD participants made fewer and fewer correct responses over all three sections, whereas performance of AD participants leveled off by the middle section with no further decline. Experiment 2 compared letter fluency performance among NC, AD and IVD groups, and participants with dementia secondary to idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD). For all letter cues, IVD and PD participants generated fewer responses than NC and AD participants. However, IVD and PD participants generated a larger proportion of words than AD and NC participants within the first 15 s. As the task progressed, the output of IVD and PD participants dropped precipitously. These findings indicate that failure to maintain mental set is not a diffuse or general cognitive disability. Rather, failure to maintain mental set in dementia may be best understood within the context of predictable and specific within-task time epochs.

Aged↗
PubMed2002

Error analysis of the nine-word California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT-9) among older adults with and without dementia.

The nine-word California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT-9; Libon et al., 1996; Spreen & Strauss, 1998) is a verbal list learning task used to assess declarative memory impairment among dementia patients. The present study sought to investigate the neuro-cognitive mechanisms that underlie the production of intrusions and perseverations on the list A, free recall learning trials, and the false positive responses made on the delayed recognition condition. Patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (AD), Ischaemic Vascular Dementia associated with periventricular and deep white matter changes (IVD), and individuals without dementia (NC) were studied. Between-group analyses showed that AD participants produced more initial intrusion errors, and perseverated on those same intrusion errors across list A learning trials than IVD or NC participants. Also, as participants with dementia produced initial free recall intrusion errors, the semantic organization of their responses on the 'animal' word list generation task declined (Giovannetti-Carew, Lamar, Cloud, Grossman, & Libon, 1997). On the delayed recognition test condition, within-group analyses revealed that the IVD group endorsed more list B interference foils, than other errors. AD participants endorsed semantically related foils and list B interference foils. In addition, as participants with dementia endorsed more list B interference foils, more perseverations were produced on the Graphical Sequence Test - Dementia Version (Lamar et al., 1997). These results were interpreted within the context of the semantic knowledge, and executive functions deficits that typify AD and IVD, respectively.

Aged↗
PubMed2002

Errors produced on the mini-mental state examination and neuropsychological test performance in Alzheimer's disease, ischemic vascular dementia, and Parkinson's disease.

The authors investigated whether MMSE indices designed to measure temporal and physical orientation, declarative memory, language, working memory, and motor/constructional function could differentiate patients with different dementia diagnoses: Alzheimer's disease (AD), ischemic vascular dementia (IVD), or Parkinson's disease (PD). MMSE summary scores did not differ (AD, 21.4; IVD, 21.1; PD, 22.3). The AD group scored lower than IVD or PD on temporal orientation and declarative memory, IVD lower than AD on motor/ constructional and working memory. The IVD and PD groups made more errors in writing a sentence and copying intersecting pentagons. Significant correlations were found between the orientation indices and neuropsychological tests of naming and memory, and between the working memory and motor/constructional indices and tests of executive control. Such analyses of MMSE performance could assist in formulating referral questions for cognitive assessment and in tracking the course of dementing illnesses.

Aged↗
PubMed2002

Assessing nonverbal memory with the Biber Figure Learning Test-Extended in temporal lobe epilepsy patients.

Material-specific memory dysfunction was assessed using a nonverbal, visuospatial, supraspan learning test, the Biber Figure Learning Test-Extended (BFLT-E), in 71 left-hemisphere language-dominant epilepsy patients prior to anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) and in 48 age-matched healthy subjects. Two matched forms of the BFLT-E yielded comparable scores, indicating that this task may be used to track memory performance over time in individual patients. Right temporal lobe epilepsy (RTLE) and left temporal lobe epilepsy (LTLE) patients performed below healthy subjects on all free-recall measures. RTLE, but not LTLE, patients also differed from healthy subjects in recognition memory discrimination. Furthermore, the RTLE patients performed below LTLE patients on measures specific to long-term memory abilities. The BFLT-E appears to be a useful clinical tool for assessing different components of visuospatial memory in patients with lateralized mesial temporal lobe (MTL) dysfunction. The test is sensitive to visuoconstructional problems associated with various types of brain damage, but it also distinguishes material-specific, nonverbal, visuospatial memory impairments in patients with neurological dysfunction in the non language-dominant right temporal lobe.

Journal Article↗