title: Neuropsychological assessment in illiterates. II. Language and praxic abilities.
abstract: A basic neuropsychological examination of language and praxic abilities was administered to extreme educational groups (100 illiterates and 100 professionals). Subjects were matched according to sex and age (16-25, 26-35, 36-45, 46-55, and 56-65). The following tasks were included: language comprehension, phonological discrimination, naming (objects, figures, and body parts), repetition of words, verbal fluency, calculation, buccofacial and ideomotor praxis, finger alternating movements, meaningless movements, cancellation task, coordinated movements with both hands, and motor impersistence tasks. All the differences between the two educational groups were statistically significant. Two of the eight language tests (phonological discrimination and naming figures) and three of the seven praxic tests (buccofacial praxis, coordinated movements, and cancellation task) showed differences between age groups with a better performance in the younger groups. Calculation tasks and ideomotor praxis showed differences between sexes with a better performance in males. Influence of educational factors in performing routine neuropsychological tests is analyzed.
authors.affiliation: Miami Institute of Psychology of the Caribbean Center for Advanced Studies.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rosselli
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ardila
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rosas
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention; D003105:Colombia; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009048:Motor Skills; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000379:methods*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010700:Phonetics; D011594:Psychometrics; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values; D013067:Speech Perception