Biomedical subjects

D Ivison

Publications and source records attributed to D Ivison.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1989

Assessing memory deterioration with the Wechsler Memory Scale, the National Adult Reading Test, and the Schonell Graded Word Reading Test.

The National Adult Reading Test (NART), the Schonell Graded Word Reading Test (SGWRT), and the Wechsler Memory Scale, Form I (WMS) were administered to 65 healthy subjects aged 65 to 89 years. Regression equations were derived which allowed total raw score on the WMS to be predicted from the subject's age and from the number of errors on the NART alone or on the NART and SGWRT combined. The distribution of discrepancies between obtained and predicted WMS scores for each equation did not depart significantly from normality and the percentage of subjects at each discrepancy score is provided. The standard error of prediction for each equation is slightly less than that for predicting WAIS IQ from the NART. Sixteen patients with clinical diagnoses of senile dementia of the Alzheimer type obtained discrepancies as large or larger than the most discrepant 2% of normal subjects. These results suggest that this procedure may provide a brief but effective assessment of cognitive deterioration in the elderly and may be capable of assessing dementia earlier than the NART/WAIS combination.

Aged↗

PubMed1988

Paired associate learning: form 1 and form 2 of the Wechsler Memory Scale.

Despite its popularity as a clinical measure, the paired Associate Learning (PAL) subtest of Wechsler's Memory Scale (WMS) still remains relatively undocumented for its psychometric properties. This article reports on the performance of 500 (form 1) and 600 (form 2) general medical patients hospitalized for other than neuropsychiatric conditions across five (20-69) and six (20-79) ten-year age bands respectively. In both alternate forms of PAL, strong age effects emerged while sex differences were more marked in form 2. Temporal reliability, assessed in separate student samples, proved adequate for either form. Parallel form correlations also indicated a moderate relationship between them. When easy and hard associates were analysed as separate measures with MANOVA the two forms were found to differ. Some possible reasons for these results are explored with respect to current information processing concepts postulated to affect verbal learning performance, and their utility in helping distinguish between pseudodementia and mild Alzheimer type dementia. Separate factor analyses also showed the two equivalent forms to diverge somewhat in their structural pattern with form 1 demonstrating clear clusterings of the pairs along a continuum ranging from very easy (overlearned) and mediate (superordinate) to hard associates.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1987

Use of environmental manipulation and modified informal reality orientation with institutionalized, confused elderly subjects: a replication.

The effectiveness, for confused elderly subjects, of modified informal reality orientation and environmental manipulation without any 'classroom' reality orientation was investigated with 10 experimental subjects in one ward and 10 control subjects in another. All subjects were assessed prior to the start of the intervention and after 6 and 12 weeks of treatment on cognitive and behavioural measures. While the control group showed decline on all measures except one, the experimental group improved in ward orientation and cognitive status and showed no decline on the behavioural measures.

Aged↗

PubMed1986

Anna Thompson and the American liner New York: some normative data.

Increased proactive inhibition is claimed to be common in brain-damaged subjects and the Wechsler Memory Scale is often used in the clinical examination of such subjects. Normative data are presented on the two paragraphs of the Logical Memory sub-test of the WMS, Form 1, which allow evaluation of the frequency of occurrence of a discrepancy of a given size between performances on the two paragraphs, based on the performances of 500 subjects without any known neuropsychiatric involvement.

Adult↗

PubMed1986

Paired associate learning: normative data for differences between high and low associate word pairs.

Wilson, Bacon, Kaszniak, and Fox (1982) suggest that the learning of low associate pairs on the Wechsler Memory Scale involves episodic memory alone while the learning of high associate pairs involves semantic memory as well. Tulving (1983) also comments that, whereas some information in episodic memory is relatively unorganized and access to its content tends to be deliberate and requiring conscious effort (e.g., low associate pairs), information in semantic memory is organized and access to its content is more automatic (e.g., high associate pairs). As there may be occasions when it would be useful to compare these two types of memory functioning, differential diagnosis between depressive pseudodementia and organic dementia for example, normative data is provided enabling the calculation of the frequency with which differences between the learning of the two kinds of associate occur, based on the performance of 500 subjects with no known neuropsychiatric involvement.

Adult↗

PubMed1985

Use of environmental manipulation and classroom and modified informal reality orientation with institutionalized, confused elderly patients.

The effectiveness of 'classroom' reality orientation (CRO) for confused elderly subjects was evaluated. Experimental groups 1 and 2 (each consisting of five subjects) received CRO for 1 month with only group 1 continuing with maintenance CRO for a further 2 months. Both experimental groups and the control group (10 subjects) received modified informal reality orientation (IRO) and environmental manipulation (EM) for all 3 months. All subjects were assessed prior to the start of the study and after 4 and 12 weeks of treatment on cognitive and behavioural measures. Both experimental groups showed significant improvement on both cognitive and behavioural measures after 1 month compared with the controls. This improvement was maintained at 12 weeks for both experimental groups but there was a statistically significant difference only between group 1 and its matched controls.

Aged↗