Short forms of the Wechsler adult scales: a systematic review
espanolIntroduccion.Desde la aparicion de la primera escala WAIS, ha habido un intento generalizado por parte de investigadores/as en la evaluacion de las habilidades cognitivas por encontrar formas abreviadas que faciliten la practica clinica de los/as profesionales en aquellas situaciones en las que las condiciones, bien por el tiempo disponible o por las caracteristicas clinicas de los/as pacientes, no aconsejan utilizar un ins-trumento extenso. Objetivo.Llevar a cabo una revision sistematica de las formas breves de hasta cuatro subtests elaboradas a partir de las escalas WAIS-III y WAIS-IV. Metodologia.Busqueda de informacion en la base de datos PsycINFO y revision sistematica de la inf…
Revisión de las formas abreviadas de la Escala de Inteligencia de Wechsler para Adultos
RESUMEN: El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo presentar una revisión teórica de las principales formas abreviadas que han sido desarrolladas por varios autores a partir de las distintas versiones de la Escala de inteligencia de Wechsler para adultos que han ido surgiendo a lo largo del tiempo. El desarrollo de formas cortas ha ido creciendo en paralelo a la aparición de las nuevas versiones de la escala completa. Una forma abreviada permite estimar la capacidad intelectual con un tiempo de administración menor, por lo que puede ser de gran utilidad si el objetivo de evaluación es obtener una medida general de la capacidad intelectual.Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale: Review of short for…
Four-subtest short-form of the WAIS-IV for assessment of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Abstract Introduction The present study aimed to obtain a short form of the Spanish version of the WAIS-IV for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia that requires about half an hour to be administered. The reduced test can be very useful in clinical and research settings when an estimation of the intelligence quotient (IQ) is required to decide about intervention programs or to describe the sample. Materials and methods A sample of 143 patients participated in the study, 91 out of them were the test group, and the other 52 were used for a cross-validation analysis. To increase the content validity, the decision was made to create a short form composed of a subtest of each of the four cognit…
Dificultades en la comprensión del habla rápida en oyentes mayores con pérdidas auditivas leves o moderadas
Objetivo En este trabajo se evaluan las dificultades de los adultos mayores, sin y con perdidas auditivas (presbiacusia y perdidas moderadas), en la comprension del habla rapida. El habla rapida es habitual en la comunicacion diaria. Sin embargo, no contamos con suficientes estudios que evaluen este problema en oyentes castellanoparlantes, tal como existen para oyentes angloparlantes. Material y metodo Se comparo el reconocimiento de frases presentadas a 3 tasas de aceleracion: normal, rapida y muy rapida, en los 3 grupos de oyentes. Estas medidas se correlacionaron con medidas audiologicas y con la puntuacion obtenida en un cuestionario de problemas de comunicacion. Resultados La ejecucion…
Forma corta de cuatro subtest de la WAIS-IV para la evaluación de pacientes con diagnóstico de esquizofrenia
Resumen Introduccion El objetivo de este estudio ha sido obtener una forma corta de la version espanola de la WAIS-IV para pacientes con diagnostico de esquizofrenia que necesite entorno a media hora para ser administrada. Una forma abreviada puede ser muy util en contextos clinicos y de investigacion cuando se necesite una estimacion del cociente intelectual de pacientes con diagnostico de esquizofrenia para su adscripcion a programas de intervencion o para la descripcion de la muestra. Materiales y metodos Participo en el estudio una muestra de 143 pacientes. Noventa y uno formaron el grupo de test, y los otros 52 se utilizaron en un analisis de validacion cruzada. Para aumentar la valide…
Perceptual priming in schizophrenia evaluated by word fragment and word stem completion
Implicit memory seems to be preserved in schizophrenia as a whole, but dissociations between conceptual and perceptual tasks and between accuracy and reaction time measures have appeared. The present research has revealed some methodological limitations in many studies to date that are focused on the study of perceptual implicit memory in schizophrenic patients using accuracy measures. The review of these studies revealed that limitations are related to an inadequate definition of performance and priming measures, a lack of control over the characteristics of the stimuli, and the absence of information on the experimental procedures used in data collection. Moreover, the task used in these …
Implicit memory functioning in schizophrenia: Explaining inconsistent findings of word stem completion tasks
The definitive implicit memory profile of schizophrenia is yet to be clarified. Methodological differences between studies could be the reason for the inconsistent findings reported. In this study, we have examined implicit memory functioning using a word stem completion task. In addition, we have addressed methodological issues related with lexical and perceptual stimuli characteristics, and with the strategy used to calculate priming scores. Our data show similar performance values in schizophrenic patients and healthy controls. Furthermore, we have not detected significant differences in priming between the two groups, even when this parameter was calculated using three different procedu…
Fragment Difficulty in Priming on Word-Completion Tests
Word-fragment completion is a frequently used test in implicit memory research. In this test priming is the relevant variable. Priming is obtained by subtracting the proportion of nonstudied word fragments correctly completed (called “completion difficulty baseline”) from the studied word fragments correctly completed. Since completion difficulty can spuriously vary greatly between experimental conditions, its effect on magnitude of priming is studied. Normative frequency of occurrence of target words was considered because their influence over performance is known. In an experiment using a word-fragment completion test, participants' completion of fragments at three levels of completion d…
Effect of Prime Type on Lexical Decision Time
The present investigation concerns the issues of the control condition and type of related prime-target relationship operationalization in the lexical-decision paradigm. It is shown that the use of a row of asterisks produces strong inhibitory effects on reaction time to the target relative to a control condition formed with the word “neutro” (“neutral”). The operationalization of prime-target relatedness by means of association of category norms seems equally adequate, although category exemplars do not prime category exemplar targets. Both sets of data are discussed in relation to current research trends using lexical-decision time.
Priming index of the Spanish word fragments from the Dasí, Soler, and Ruiz (2004) database
Word-fragment completion is a frequently used test in implicit memory research. A database of 196 Spanish fragments was recently published (Dasi, Soler, & Ruiz, 2004) in which the fragments were described for indices, such as difficulty, familiarity, frequency, number of meanings, and so on (www.psychonomic.org/archive). In this work, a new index, thepriming index, is described for the same 196 fragments. This index is calculated for each fragment by subtracting the difficulty index (the proportion of correct completion when the fragment is not studied) from the proportion of correct completion when the fragment is studied, and it means the capacity of an item to be primed. In order to dete…
Study time effects in recognition memory.
We empirically tested the assumption that study time increases recognition accuracy because the storage of information is better when study time is longer as Shiffrin and colleagues have reported, an assumption common to parallel models of recognition. In the present study with 123 subjects, we examined the effect of item strength on four measures: hit rate, false alarm rate, d′, and β, for a single-word recognition task with longer study times than those usually used in the literature. Analysis indicated significant increase for hit rate and d′ and a decrease in false alarm rate, as one goes from weak to stronger study conditions, and a change in ln(β) when study time is greater than 1 se…
The effect of associative strength on semantic priming in schizophrenia
The present research was designed to investigate the pattern of semantic priming in schizophrenia as a function of strength of association (or semantic distance between concepts in the semantic network). Thirty schizophrenia patients, without formal thought disorder, and twenty-nine healthy controls participated in a lexical decision task in which prime-target associative strength (strong, weak and not related) and stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA: 250 ms and 750 ms) were manipulated. Patients and controls showed the same associative strength effect on RTs. In the short SOA condition priming effects were obtained for both strong and weak prime-target associative conditions. However in the lon…
Gender differences on the WAIS-IV in patients with schizophrenia
Introduccion Los resultados de los estudios que han investigado diferencias de genero en funcionamiento neuropsicologico en la esquizofrenia han sido inconsistentes. Diferencias en la fase de la enfermedad, en las caracteristicas demograficas y clinicas de las muestras y en los instrumentos utilizados podrian explicar esa heterogeneidad. Objetivo Investigar la heterogeneidad en los resultados comparando el funcionamiento cognitivo de pacientes con diagnostico de esquizofrenia. Metodo Veinticinco mujeres y veinticinco hombres pacientes con diagnostico de esquizofrenia equiparados en edad, edad al inicio de la enfermedad y nivel educativo se evaluaron en funcionamiento cognitivo utilizando la…
[Difficulties understanding compressed speech in elderly listeners with mild-to-moderate hearing loss].
Objective In this work we evaluated the difficulties in understanding rapid speech (normal, fast and very fast rates) in elderly listeners with and without hearing loss (presbycusis and moderate hearing loss). Rapid speech is common in daily communication, yet few studies have been conducted to assess this problem in Spanish-speaking listeners, as has been done for English speakers. Material and method We compared the recognition of sentences presented at normal, fast, and very fast speech rates in 3 groups of listeners. Recognition scores were correlated to their audiological measures and the score obtained on a Communication Difficulties Questionnaire. Results Compressed sentences were mo…
Supporting parenting of infants: evaluating outcomes for parents and children in a community-based program.
This research presents an evaluation of the intervention dose-effect of the Parent-Child Psychological Support Program (PCPS). The PCPS is a universal community-based program to support parenting, during the first 18 months, and to promote protective adaptive systems in children through a schedule of quarterly office-based appointments, starting at 3 months of age. Generally children attend for six visits. When the Program opens in a particular area, parents of all children under 18 months are invited. The different ages of the children who are joining present a unique opportunity to obtain groups to evaluate the program dose-effect using a cohort-sequential design. This dose-effect on pare…
Short Form of Spanish Version of the WISC–IV for Intelligence Assessment in Elementary School Children
In educational settings, quick assessments of intelligence are often required to screen children with potential special needs. The WISC–IV is administered individually and takes between one and two hours to complete. Given its widespread use in Spain, a short-form of the Spanish version is likely to be of use to professionals. The goal of this research was to develop a short form of the WISC–IV that can be performed in approximately half an hour. Data obtained in 100 elementary school children were analyzed following the criteria of Resnick and Entin (1971). The results showed that the most accurate estimation of intelligence was achieved with a combination of the Vocabulary, Block Design,…
Priming in word stem completion tasks: comparison with previous results in word fragment completion tasks
This study investigates priming in an implicit Word Stem Completion (WSC) task. A total of 305 participants performed a WSC task in two phases (study and test). The test phase included 63 unique-solution stems and 63 multiple-solution stems. After confirming the presence of priming (mean = 0.22), analysis revealed that it was stronger in the case of multiple-solution stems, indicating that the stems were not a homogeneous group of stimuli. Thus, further analyses were performed only for the data of the unique-solution stems. The correlations between priming and a set of conceptual (familiarity, frequency of use, number of meanings) and non-conceptual (letters/blanks ratio and difficulty of c…
Effectiveness of the Cognitive Differentiation Program of the Integrated Psychological Therapy
The aim of the current pilot study was to compare two strategies in the application of the cognitive differentiation program of Integrated Psychological Therapy for people with schizophrenia. Twenty-six outpatients were randomly assigned to the application of the program in group sessions (CDg), or to its application in individualized sessions (CDi). The program provides cognitive exercises to promote better performance in cognition, and both groups of participants completed the same number of exercises following the same number of sessions per week. Outcomes were assessed on neuropsychological measures of attention, executive functioning and everyday memory, and everyday functioning. Effec…
Satisfaction levels of patients and their families with a Psychiatric Hospital Unit.
Title: Satisfaction levels of patients and their families with a Psychiatric Hospital Unit. Abstract: In recent decades there has been growing interest in examining patient satisfaction since it can have great influence on the patients' adher- ence to treatment and their clinical evolution. Similarly, it has been demonstrated that the satisfaction of psychiatric patients is an indicator of the quality of mental health services. It has also been demonstrated that it is a strong predictor of the future use that psychiatric patients will make of these services and their willingness to cooperate with treatment. In Spain, there have been few studies conducted on patient satisfaction in Spanish p…
Stimulus Repetition Produces Automatic Facilitation in a Naming Task
Repeated prime-target pairs in a lexical decision task showed improvement across 4 stimulus onset asynchronies for a single subject.
Normative data on the familiarity and difficulty of 196 Spanish word fragments
In this article, normative data on the familiarity and difficulty of 196 single-solution Spanish word fragments are presented. The database includes the following indices: difficulty, familiarity, frequency, number of meanings, number of letters given in the fragment, first and/or last letters given, and ratio of letters to blanks. A factor analysis was performed on difficulty, and two factors were obtained. Frequency, familiarity, and number of meanings loaded highly on the first factor, which we consider to measure lexical processes, whereas number of letters in the fragment, first and/or last letters given, and ratio of letters to blanks loaded highly on the second factor, which we judge…
WAIS-IV Performance in Patients With Schizophrenia.
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is one of the most widely used instruments to measure cognitive functioning. The aims of this study were 1) to obtain the cognitive profile of Spanish patients with schizophrenia on the WAIS-IV; 2) to compare their profile to the profile of a healthy control group; and 3) to compare the cognitive profile of patients with schizophrenia to the performance observed in two separate previous studies in Canada and China. A sample of 99 outpatients and 99 healthy control participants, matched on age, sex, and educational level, were measured using the WAIS-IV, including 10 core subtests, 4 indices, and 2 general intelligence scores, to obtain their cognitiv…
More on magnitude of priming in implicit memory tasks.
The effects of word frequency, length of the word, and type of word Fragment in a fragment-completion test were investigated with 57 undergraduate students, 19–22 years. Priming with better performance on studied than on nonstudied words in this task was greater for low frequency words than for high frequency words and greater for fragments without the first letter than for fragments with the first letter. It was inferred that characteristics of fragments should be considered in any implicit memory task when the magnitude of priming is of interest. In general, word fragment-completion processes appear to be based on sources of information available in visual identification tasks.
Influence of articulation rate on two memory tasks in young and older adults.
This study investigated the relation between phonological loop functioning and age. Phonological loop is a time-based subsystem of the Working Memory Model of Baddeley and Wilson, which uses rehearsal of information as an active process to avoid phonological decay. Performance differences were examined between young and older adults in two speech-based memory tasks, such as the immediate serial recall of words and the Digit Ordering Task. Analysis showed that performance on both tasks was lower for the older group. Articulation rate was also measured to test the hypothesis that the impairment of some cognitive functions in adults can be associated to their slowness or the greater time need…
Heuristics and Memory Strategies Used by Mathematicians
The study of the cognitive processes involved in learning and acquisition of technically complex material is a main focus of interest for basic and applied research. Our research program tries to identh memory aids and heuristic training strategies useful for improving mathematics performance. Part of the effectiveness of a course, designed by taking into account knowledge about the cognitive system, has to do with the development of an adequate relationship with the belief system of the learner. As a first step in that direction, we present a survey of the opinions of a group of mathematicians about the dd€iculty of their subjecr matter, the strategies they use spontaneously to overcome di…
Perceptual Priming and Reading Speed among Fourth Grade Children
AbstractThis study evaluated the perceptual priming in fourth grade primary school children using a word-fragment completion task. The children were classified into two categories according to their reading speed: high and low. Using several sub-scales of the WISC-IV, their working memory was measured, and their total IQ was estimated, in order to control for their effects on priming. The statistical analyses showed that children with high reading speed were significantly better at word-fragment completion and showed greater priming (p < .01); in other words, the prior processing of the words from which the fragments came produced a greater benefit in the performance of the word-fragment…