Biomedical subjects

Edith Kaplan

Publications and source records attributed to Edith Kaplan.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

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↗