Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Verbal Learning”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,567 records · Page 87Linked to original sources
PubMed2004

Increases in homocysteine are related to worsening of stroop scores in healthy elderly persons: a prospective follow-up study.

BACKGROUND: Elevated blood levels of homocysteine have been associated with cerebrovascular disease and cognitive impairment. The authors' objective was to determine the relationship between cognitive changes and variations in tHcy levels over time in healthy elderly volunteers. METHODS: This prospective cohort study was conducted in healthy community-dwelling older adults without cerebrovascular disease at baseline and followed them for 2.3 years. Cobalamin, red blood cell folate, total serum homocysteine (tHcy), and creatinine levels were measured and recorded. Cognitive measures included the Mini Mental State Examination, California Verbal Learning Test, Mattis Dementia Rating Scale, and Stroop Neuropsychological Inventory. RESULTS: At baseline, participants with elevated tHcy levels had lower Stroop scores (72.7 vs 85.35, p <.05) than did participants with normal tHcy levels. The tHcy levels correlated significantly with Stroop scores at baseline and follow-up. At follow-up, tHcy levels had increased in 104 participants (group I) and decreased in 76 participants (group II). Compared to mean baseline values, the mean tHcy in both groups had changed significantly at follow-up (p <.05 and p <.001, respectively). Participants in group I had significantly lower Stroop scores in multivariate analyses at follow-up than at baseline. The scores of participants in group II at follow-up were not significantly different than their scores at baseline. The rate of change of tHcy levels and the rate of change of the Stroop scores were significantly correlated (r = -0.264, p <.001) after multivariate analysis. Stroop scores decreased by 22% at follow-up in participants whose tHcy levels increased by 40% from baseline to follow-up. CONCLUSION: Elevated tHcy levels and increases in tHcy during a short period of time are associated with decreased Stroop scores in otherwise cognitively normal elderly volunteers.

Aged↗
PubMed1975

Aging and interference with memory.

Input and output interference in both short-term and long-term memory were measured in three age groups (aged 20-39, 40-59, 60-80 years). A paired-associate probe technique was used, which, by factorially combining the positions of the pairs at presentation and recall, allowed an examination of output interference for all positions in the input list. No differential output interference or input interference due to age was found for items assumed to be recalled from long-term memory. Evidence, however, did indicate that adult aging primarily affects long-term memory, since no differences between groups were found for items assumed to be recalled from short-term memory.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Psychometrics and event-related potentials in the diagnosis of dementia.

This study attempted to increase the reliability of predicting the normal latency of the P3 component in elderly adults. It was hypothesized this would allow a more accurate distinction to be made between normal adults (n = 20) and patients with dementia (n = 19) on the basis of observed P3 latencies. Two models for predicting latency were assessed. The first, which used age alone as a predictor, explained 18% of the normal variation in latency and misclassified 40% of the patients. The second model, which incorporated scores on psychometric tests, explained 74% of latency variation and misclassified 20% of the patients. Scores on the Similarities subtest of the WAIS and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, however, correctly identified 92% of the patients. This finding casts doubt on the justification of the P3 latency measures to diagnose dementia.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2004

Early treatment-induced improvement of negative symptoms predicts cognitive functioning in treatment-naive first episode schizophrenia: a 2-year followup.

Studying neuroleptic-naive first episode schizophrenia is a strategy for investigating clinical and neuropsychological abnormalities at a very early phase of the disease without confounding influences of illness duration and medication effects. We examined the clinical and neuropsychological time course over 2 years in 32 neuroleptic-naive first episode patients (20 males, 12 females) and 21 healthy individuals with similar sociodemographic characteristics. Early treatment-induced reduction of negative symptoms predicted superior cognitive performance throughout followup in the domains of verbal fluency, attention, and non-verbal learning and memory. There were no associations between psychotic or disorganized symptoms and cognitive variables. These findings suggest an important relationship between treatment efficacy of antipsychotic medication and the longer term course of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Comparison of methods of teaching children proper lifting techniques.

This study was designed to determine the effects of two teaching methods on children's ability to demonstrate and recall their mastery of proper lifting techniques. Seventy-six third and fifth grade public school children were divided by grade into three groups. Two of the groups (experimental) were taught the correct method for lifting a heavy object, either by lecture demonstration or guided discovery teaching format; one group (control) was not taught. The students' knowledge was measured pretest, one-week posttest, and eight-week posttest with a written and practical test. The students in the experimental groups in both grades significantly (p less than or equal to .001) increased their scores on the written portion of the test over those of the control groups on the one-week posttest. No group, however, showed significant gains on the practical portion. No differences were found between teaching methods. Results of this study stress the importance of evaluating verbally learned motor skills in a practical application format in school settings and in clinical patient education.

Child↗
PubMed2005

Cognitive deficits in unaffected first-degree relatives of schizophrenia patients: a meta-analytic review of putative endophenotypes.

Cognitive deficits may index genetic liability for schizophrenia and are candidate endophenotypes for the illness. In order to compare the degree of sensitivity among cognitive tasks to group differences between healthy relatives and controls and the influence of moderator variables, this review reports mean effect sizes for 43 cognitive test scores from 58 studies of cognitive performance in the unaffected adult relatives of schizophrenia patients. Results indicate reliable relative-control differences, in the small to medium effect size range, over a diverse array of tasks, with the largest effect sizes seen in complex versions of continuous performance tasks, auditory verbal learning, design copy tests, and category fluency. Three study design features were found to have significant effects on overall effect size magnitude: groups unmatched on education, groups unmatched on age, and asymmetric psychiatric exclusion criteria. After excluding studies with the latter 2 design features, reliable performance differences were still observed over a smaller subset of cognitive test variables, with the largest effect sizes seen in Trails B (d = 0.50) and performance measures from both simple (d = 0.56) and complex (d = 0.60-0.66) versions of continuous performance tasks. Four of the 6 largest effect sizes reflect tasks with high executive control demands in common, such as working memory demands, set shifting, and inhibition of prepotent responses. Cognitive deficits, particularly those tapping such executive control functions, should continue to prove valuable as endophenotypes of interest in the search for specific genetic factors related to schizophrenia.

Cognition Disorders↗
PubMed2006

Measuring changes in functional status among patients with schizophrenia: the link with cognitive impairment.

Cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia (CIAS) includes neuropsychological deficits in attention, working memory, verbal learning, and problem solving. These deficits have been shown to be linked to impairment in functional status (eg, social behavior, work performance, and activities of daily living) among patients with schizophrenia in cross-sectional studies. Less is known about the relationship between cognitive and functional change over time, such as potential functional implications of treatment-related improvement in CIAS. The purpose of this review is to summarize research on the association between change in CIAS and change in functional status, to discuss responsiveness of functional outcomes measures, and to provide recommendations for future research and measure development. Nine longitudinal studies were located on the link between CIAS and functional status, and 8 functional outcomes measures were used across these studies. The 9 studies offer initial support for a link between change in cognitive function and change in functional status. However, inconsistent findings across studies indicate that available research is preliminary, and substantial questions remain unanswered. Shortcomings of functional status measures are noted: most instruments were not developed for the target population, and none have demonstrated responsiveness to cognitive change among schizophrenic patients. It is recommended that new functional outcome measures be developed that are specifically designed to be responsive to change in cognition, with domains previously shown to be related to cognitive ability. When creating new functional outcomes measures for assessment of patients with schizophrenia, responsiveness to change in CIAS should be evaluated as part of the development and validation process.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed2006

A virtual reality apartment as a measure of medication management skills in patients with schizophrenia: a pilot study.

Performance on a novel, virtual reality (VR) assessment of medication management skills, the Virtual Reality Apartment Medication Management Assessment (VRAMMA), was investigated in 25 patients with schizophrenia and 18 matched healthy controls. The VRAMMA is a virtual 4-room apartment consisting of a living room with an interactive clock and TV, a bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom with an interactive medicine cabinet. After an exploratory phase, participants were given a mock prescription regimen to be taken 15 minutes later from pill bottles located in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom of the virtual environment. The VRAMMA was administered with a validated measure of medication management skills, several neurocognitive tests, and a symptom scale. Results revealed that (1) schizophrenic patients made significantly more quantitative errors in the number of pills taken, were less accurate at taking the prescribed medications at the designated time, and checked the interactive clock less frequently than healthy controls; (2) in patients with schizophrenia, there was significant agreement in classification of adherence vs nonadherence between a validated measure of medication management skills and the VRAMMA; and (3) in patients with schizophrenia, years of education and a measure of verbal learning and memory were linked to quantitative errors on the VRAMMA, while positive symptoms, specifically delusional symptoms, were inversely linked to distance traveled within the VRAMMA. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to provide evidence for the utility of VR technology in the assessment of instrumental role functioning in patients with schizophrenia.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Outcome of memory rehabilitation in traumatic brain injury assessed by neuropsychological tests and questionnaires.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effectiveness of a memory rehabilitation program. To compare different outcome measures. PARTICIPANTS: Twelve patients with severe traumatic brain injury. SETTING: Outpatient rehabilitation service. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (REY), California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT), Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT), and the Memory Failures in Everyday Memory Questionnaire (MFE). STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Exact nonparametric procedures. RESULTS: All patients achieved meaningful functional gains. Modest improvements were found in some of the scales of the CVLT but not in the REY, RBMT, or MFE. CONCLUSION: Functional gains did not correlate with improvement in memory processes. Measurement of changes in independence in activities of daily living mediated by compensatory aids and educational intervention plans with relatives are proposed.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Relations among sociodemographic, neurologic, clinical, and neuropsychologic variables, and vocational status following mild traumatic brain injury: a follow-up study.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the long-term relations among sociodemographic, neurologic, clinical, and neuropsychologic variables, and vocational status in persons with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), and to identify the symptoms that determine whether or not these individuals return to work. DESIGN: Longitudinal quasi-experimental between-groups design. PARTICIPANTS: Eighty-five MTBI subjects aged between 16 and 65 years. SETTING: The emergency ward of the Trois-Rivieres Regional Hospital Centre in Quebec, Canada. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Age, gender, Glasgow Coma Scale score, duration of posttraumatic amnesia, duration of retrograde amnesia, total of symptoms at emergency, time elapsed since the trauma, Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task, Stroop Color Word Test, California Verbal Learning Test, and the number of symptoms at follow-up (12 to 36 months posttrauma). RESULTS: Only the total number of symptoms reported at follow-up was related to vocational status. The majority of individuals had returned to work 1 year or more post-MTBI. Individuals who had not returned to work reported the greatest number of symptoms, which could be linked to their affective status. Six affective symptoms, 5 cognitive symptoms, 6 physical symptoms, and 8 symptoms relating to social and daily life activities differentiated the participants who had returned to work from those who had not. CONCLUSIONS: Patient characteristics, injury severity indicators, and cognitive functions were not associated with vocational status. To better understand post-MTBI vocational status, it is important to focus on subjective complaints that arise following the injury.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Change in neuropsychological performance in asymptomatic HIV infection: 1-year follow-up.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the stability of cognitive function in patients with asymptomatic HIV infection. DESIGN: Previous longitudinal studies of cognitive function have focused on patients who progress in terms of disease stage. The present study avoided this potential confounding factor by including only subjects who remained in the asymptomatic stage of infection over the follow-up period. METHOD: Subjects were administered an extensive neuropsychological test battery at baseline and 1 year follow-up. Overall performance was characterized as normal or abnormal based on the performance of a well-matched HIV-negative control group. RESULTS: A significantly higher proportion of HIV-positive subjects became abnormal at the follow-up examination. Comparison of the seropositive subjects who remained normal with those who became abnormal revealed no differences at baseline on age, education, depression or CD4 levels. Subjects who became abnormal had worse performance at baseline on measures of information processing, verbal learning and memory, and reaction time. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that cognitive function may decline in some patients who continue to be in the asymptomatic stage of infection. Patients with a pattern of cognitive abnormalities at baseline, which includes information processing and reaction time deficits, may be at increased risk for declines in function during early stages of infection.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Bupropion versus methylphenidate in the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

OBJECTIVE: In the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the efficacy of the tricyclic antidepressants and monoamine oxidase inhibitor antidepressants has been compared with that of both placebo and the stimulants (methylphenidate and/or dextroamphetamine). However, the effectiveness of bupropion has been contrasted only with placebo. The primary aim of this study was to contrast the efficacy of bupropion with that of methylphenidate in the treatment of ADHD. METHOD: A double-blind, crossover design was used in this study. After a 14-day medication washout period, 15 ADHD subjects (7 to 17 years old) were randomized to either methylphenidate or bupropion for 6 weeks, washed out for an additional 2 weeks, and then "crossed over" to the other drug. Methylphenidate was titrated to the maximum effective dose of 0.4 to 1.3 mg/kg per day (mean 0.7 mg/kg per day) and bupropion was titrated to an effective dose ranging from 1.4 to 5.7 mg/kg per day (mean 3.3 mg/kg per day). RESULTS: Both methylphenidate and bupropion produced significantly greater (p < .001) and equivalent improvement on the Iowa-Conners Teacher's Rating Scale according to both the subjects' parents and teachers. The same pattern of improvement was also noted for improvement on the Clinical Global Impression Scale, Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test, Continuous Performance Test, Children's Depression Inventory, Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, and Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test. CONCLUSIONS: In this double-blind, crossover trial, bupropion and methylphenidate were both effective and did not differ in their overall efficacy as treatments for ADHD.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Effects of risperidone on conduct and disruptive behavior disorders in children with subaverage IQs.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether risperidone is effective in reducing symptoms of disruptive behaviors (such as aggression, impulsivity, defiance of authority figures, and property destruction) associated with conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and disruptive behavior disorder-not otherwise specified in children with subaverage IQs. METHOD: The trial consisted of a 1-week, single-blind, placebo run-in period and was followed by a 6-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled period. One hundred ten children (aged 5-12 years inclusive) with an IQ of 36-84 with a disruptive behavior disorder and a score of at least 24 on the Conduct Problem subscale of the Nisonger Child Behavior Rating Form (NCBRF) were enrolled. Eighty percent of subjects had comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Risperidone doses ranged from 0.02 to 0.06 mg/kg per day. Subjects were rated on the NCBRF, Aberrant Behavior Checklist, Behavior Problems Inventory, Clinical Global Impressions (CGI), modified California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT), and a continuous performance task (CPT). RESULTS: The intention-to-treat analysis of risperidone-treated subjects showed a significant (p < .001) reduction in mean scores (from 33.4 at baseline to 17.6 at end point; 47.3% reduction) versus placebo-treated subjects (mean baseline of 32.6 to 25.8 at end point; 20.9% reduction) on the Conduct Problem subscale of the NCBRF. Between-group differences in favor of risperidone were seen as early as week 1 and were significant at all post-baseline visits. Other subscales showed significant improvement with risperidone compared with placebo. CGI scale ratings of improvement showed highly significant gains for risperidone over placebo. A subanalysis demonstrated that the effect of risperidone was unaffected by diagnosis, presence/absence of ADHD, psychostimulant use, IQ status, and somnolence. Risperidone produced no changes on the cognitive variables (CPT/modified CVLT). The most common side effects included somnolence, headache, appetite increase, and dyspepsia. Side effects related to extrapyramidal symptoms were reported in 7 (13.2%) and 3 (5.3%) of the subjects in the risperidone and placebo groups, respectively (p = .245). CONCLUSIONS: Risperidone appears to be an adequately tolerated and effective treatment in children with subaverage IQs and severe disruptive behaviors such as aggression and destructive behavior.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2001

Absence of neuropsychologic deficits in patients receiving long-term treatment with alprazolam-XR for panic disorder.

Studies to date on the effects of benzodiazepines on neuropsychologic function have yielded conflicting data with respect to the type, severity, and duration of deficits that may be induced by these agents. As part of a placebo-controlled trial of alprazolam-XR (extended release) administered in combination with cognitive-behavioral therapy in patients with panic disorder, a battery of tests was used to measure neuropsychologic function. Thirty-eight outpatients were randomly assigned to receive either alprazolam-XR or placebo. Dosages were titrated up so that the alprazolam group (N = 18) received a mean dose of 4 mg/day (reduced in two patients because of sedative side effects). Neuropsychologic function after 6 weeks of therapy at the target dosage was compared with baseline assessments in each group. Both groups showed a statistically significant improvement from baseline to repeated assessments on measures of attention, executive functioning, psychomotor speed, and visual memory (p < 0.001); these gains were attributed to a practice effect. No significant changes were noted in measures of learning, verbal memory, or reaction time, and neither group showed any deterioration from baseline to retesting in any aspect of neuropsychologic function. These findings call into question the assumption that long-term benzodiazepine therapy produces significant neuropsychologic deficit in patients with diagnosed anxiety disorders.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Season of birth and neuropsychological impairment in schizophrenia.

Repeated studies suggest a relationship between winter birth and increased incidence of schizophrenia. Furthermore, there may be seasonal fluctuations in schizophrenia risk factors (e.g., influenza epidemics) and the severity of biological anomalies (e.g., enlarged cerebral ventricles in neuroimaging studies). In order to assess whether winter-born schizophrenics show greater neuropsychological impairment, 112 males meeting Research Diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia were administered the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery, a thorough measure of higher cortical functioning deficit. Sixty-four of these 112 patients were also administered the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised, the Benton Visual Retention Test, and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test. Despite the use of several definitions of winter and nonwinter birth, there was no evidence of elevated rates of neuropsychological dysfunction among winter-born patients on any measure. The current study contains certain limitations (e.g., variable medication status at testing), but the results suggest no strong season of birth relationship with neuropsychological impairment in a reasonably large, research-diagnosed sample of schizophrenic patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Cross-Cultural Cognitive Examination performance in patients with Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Performance profiles of patients with different dementia syndromes (Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease) were compared with each other and with those of neurologically impaired and healthy individuals without dementia on a new instrument for screening dementia, the Cross-Cultural Cognitive Examination (CCCE). The CCCE measures discriminated reliably between nondemented and demented patients, regardless of etiology. Comparisons between dementia groups found that dementia patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) showed more severe psychomotor slowing and depression, compared with patients with Alzheimer's disease, who showed more impaired recall of recently learned verbal information and verbal abstract reasoning. The CCCE also distinguished between the motor and affective symptoms that are common to all PD patients and the dementia symptoms that occur in some PD patients. These results provide further support for the clinical utility of the CCCE for discriminating dementia from normal cognitive functioning and for initial identification of different dementia syndromes.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1997

Adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: psychological test profiles in a clinical population.

Compared to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, relatively little is known about the clinical characteristics of adults with persistent ADHD. We elected to use established tests with age-corrected norms to compare the battery of psychological and neuropsychological tests conducted on outpatients admitted to our Adult ADHD clinic. ADHD patients scored significantly higher than norms on the TPQ novelty seeking and harm avoidance scales and MMPI-2 scales F, 2, 4, 7, and 8. Further, these patients were impaired on the California verbal learning test, the attentional capacity test, and the omissions and variability subtests of the test of variables of attention. Adult ADHD had high comorbidity with current depressive disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and alcohol and drug abuse/dependence. High correlations were found between patients' and independent observers' reports of ADHD symptom severity. Implications for further research are discussed.

Adult↗