Item-level psychometrics and predictors of performance for Spanish/English bilingual speakers on an object and action naming battery.
OBJECTIVE
There is a pressing need for psychometrically sound naming materials for Spanish/English bilingual adults. To address this need, in this study the authors examined the psychometric properties of An Object and Action Naming Battery (An O&A Battery; Druks & Masterson, 2000) in bilingual speakers.


METHODS
Ninety-one Spanish/English bilinguals named O&A Battery items in English and Spanish. Responses underwent a Rasch analysis. Using correlation and regression analyses, the authors evaluated the effect of psycholinguistic (e.g., imageability) and participant (e.g., proficiency ratings) variables on accuracy.


RESULTS
Rasch analysis determined unidimensionality across English and Spanish nouns and verbs and robust item-level psychometric properties, evidence for content validity. Few items did not fit the model, there were no ceiling or floor effects after uninformative and misfit items were removed, and items reflected a range of difficulty. Reliability coefficients were high, and the number of statistically different ability levels provided indices of sensitivity. Regression analyses revealed significant correlations between psycholinguistic variables and accuracy, providing preliminary construct validity. The participant variables that contributed most to accuracy were proficiency ratings and time of language use.


CONCLUSIONS
Results suggest adequate content and construct validity of O&A items retained in the analysis for Spanish/English bilingual adults and support future efforts to evaluate naming in older bilinguals and persons with bilingual aphasia.
The University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA. edmonds@ufl.edu
Lisa A
LA
Edmonds
Neila J
NJ
Donovan
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D019303:Multilingualism; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011578:Psycholinguistics / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012660:Semantics; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult