Applying Psycholinguistic Evidence to the Construction of a New Test of Verbal Memory in Late-Life Cognitive Decline: The Auditory Wordlist Learning Test.
The construction of the German Auditory Wordlist Learning Test (AWLT) for the assessment of verbal memory in late-life cognitive decline was guided by psycholinguistic evidence, which indicates that a word's linguistic characteristics influence its probability of being learned and recalled. The AWLT includes four trials of learning, short and long delayed free recall, and a recognition task. Its words were selected with taking into account their semantic content, orthographic length, frequency in the language, and orthographic neighborhood size (the number of words derived by adding, subtracting, or replacing a single letter at a time). Through this method, it was possible to better control item and test difficulty, improve the similarity between parallel forms, and reduce bias through recall advantages for certain words due to their linguistic characteristics. In two pilot studies with cognitively healthy subjects, the AWLT showed good internal consistency, split-half reliability, and parallel forms reliability and proved able to assess learning, retention, and recognition. Overall, linguistic recall effects were mitigated; however, an advantage for high-frequency words was observed.
1 Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Johannes Baltasar
JB
Hessler
2 Schuhfried GmbH, Mödling, Austria.
David
D
Brieber
2 Schuhfried GmbH, Mödling, Austria.
Johanna
J
Egle
2 Schuhfried GmbH, Mödling, Austria.
Georg
G
Mandler
1 Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Thomas
T
Jahn
D000328:Adult; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011578:Psycholinguistics / Q000379:methods*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014705:Verbal Behavior
frequency; linguistics; neighborhood size; verbal memory; word length; wordlist