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Recall discriminability: Utility of a new CVLT–II measure in the differential diagnosis of dementia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2005

DEAN C. DELIS
Affiliation:
Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California
SPENCER R. WETTER
Affiliation:
Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California
MARK W. JACOBSON
Affiliation:
Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California
GUERRY PEAVY
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California
JOANNE HAMILTON
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California
ASSAWIN GONGVATANA
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California San Diego State University, San Diego, California
JOEL H. KRAMER
Affiliation:
University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco, California
MARK W. BONDI
Affiliation:
Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California
JODY COREY-BLOOM
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California
DAVID P. SALMON
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California
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Abstract

Memory tests that are in a recall format have almost universally measured accuracy in terms of the number of target items reported by the examinee. However, this traditional scoring method can, in certain cases, result in artificially inflated memory accuracy scores. That is, just as a “yes” response bias and high false-positive rate on recognition testing can artificially inflate a patient's hit rate, so, too, a liberal response bias and high intrusion rate on recall testing can artificially inflate a patient's level of target recall. Recognition tests correct for this problem by using a discriminability measure that provides a single score of hit rate relative to false-positive rate; however, recall tests rarely provide a single score of recall accuracy that corrects for intrusion rate. In the present study, we examined the utility of a new recall discriminability measure that analyzes target recall relative to intrusion rate. Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or Huntington's disease (HD) were administered the CVLT–II, which provides both the traditional measure of target recall and a new measure of recall discriminability. The results indicate that the new recall discriminability measure was superior to the traditional level of target recall measure in distinguishing the recall performance of AD and HD patients. Implications of these results for clinical practice and theories of memory disorder in dementia are discussed. (JINS, 2005, 11, 708–715.)

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2005 The International Neuropsychological Society
Figure 0

CVLT–2 standardized scores of an 85-year-old man with complaints of declining memory and diagnosis of Cognitive Disorder NOS

Figure 1

Demographics and DRS scores for HD and AD groups

Figure 2

A comparison of CVLT–II recall performance in AD patients and HD patients when using the traditional recall measure (Fig. 1a) and the new Recall Discriminability measure (Fig. 1b).