title: Language of administration and neuropsychological test performance in neurologically intact Hispanic American bilingual adults.
abstract: This study compared the performance of Hispanic American bilingual adults on Spanish and English language versions of a neuropsychological test battery. Language achievement test scores were used to divide 36 bilingual, neurologically intact, Hispanic Americans from south Texas into Spanish-dominant, balanced, and English-dominant bilingual groups. They were administered the eight subtests of the Bateria Neuropsicologica and the Matrix Reasoning subtest of the WAIS-III in Spanish and English. Half the participants were tested in Spanish first. Balanced bilinguals showed no significant differences in test scores between Spanish and English language administrations. Spanish and/or English dominant bilinguals showed significant effects of language of administration on tests with higher language compared to visual perceptual weighting (Woodcock-Munoz Language Survey-Revised, Letter Fluency, Story Memory, and Stroop Color and Word Test). Scores on tests with higher visual-perceptual weighting (Matrix Reasoning, Figure Memory, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and Spatial Span), were not significantly affected by language of administration, nor were scores on the Spanish/California Verbal Learning Test, and Digit Span. A problem was encountered in comparing false positive rates in each language, as Spanish norms fell below English norms, resulting in a much higher false positive rate in English across all bilingual groupings. Use of a comparison standard (picture vocabulary score) reduced false positive rates in both languages, but the higher false positive rate in English persisted.
authors: Department of Psychology and Anthropology, University of Texas-Pan American, 1201 W. University Drive, Edinburg, TX 78539, USA. drgdrg13@yahoo.com
authors: Philip Gerard
authors: PG
authors: Gasquoine
authors: Kristin L
authors: KL
authors: Croyle
authors: Cynthia
authors: C
authors: Cavazos-Gonzalez
authors: Omar
authors: O
authors: Sandoval
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D019303:Multilingualism; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*