Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T23:21:31.887Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Diagnostic and Predictive Accuracy of the Modified Word Learning Test in Psychiatric Patients Over 65

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

D. Walton
D. Walton*
Affiliation:
Winwick Hospital, Warrington
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In a previous paper the results of a two-year follow-up study were reported (Walton, 1958). This study showed that when the Wechsler Memory Scale was administered four times to each patient of a series suffering from a memory defect, significant differences emerged between those patients subsequently diagnosed as brain-damaged or as non-brain-damaged, in respect of the degree of improvement in their performance. The results were of considerable diagnostic and predictive importance. In spite of this, however, the method would be an uneconomical method for routine diagnosis. A shorter test involving the same principle of successive opportunities to learn appeared necessary. Additional analysis of the final Memory Scale results also showed that present learning ability was more impaired in the organic group than in the non-brain-damaged group, whilst scores based on retentivity questions produced many misclassifications. The results strongly suggested that a test of dementia should consist of a measure of present learning ability and that opportunities to learn could best be provided by successive repetitions of the particular test.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 104 , Issue 437 , October 1958 , pp. 1119 - 1122
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1958 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Diers, W. C., and Brown, C. C., “Rorschach ‘organic signs’ and intelligence level” J. Cons. Psychol., 1951, 15, 343–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krawiecki, J. A., Couper, L., and Walton, D., “The efficacy of Parentrovite in the treatment of a group of senile psychotic patients”, J. Ment. Sci., 1957, 103, No. 432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, E. H., “An experimental investigation of intellectual speed and power in mental disorders”, Ph.D. Thesis, University of London, 1953.Google Scholar
Shapiro, M. B., and Nelson, E. H., “An investigation of the nature of cognitive impairment in co-operative psychiatric patients”, Brit. J. Med. Psychol., 1955, 4, 205–80.Google Scholar
Walton, D., “On the validity of the Rorschach test in the diagnosis of intracranial damage and pathology”, J. Ment. Sci., 1955, 101, No. 423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Idem and Black, D. A., “The validity of a psychological test of brain-damage”, Brit. J. Med. Psychol., 1957, 4, 270–79.Google Scholar
Idem , “The validity of a psychological test of brain-damage”, Bull. Brit. Psychol. Soc., 1958, No. 34.Google Scholar
Idem and Black, D. A., “The diagnostic significance of stressed and unstressed matrices, Mill Hill discrepancies in the psychoneuroses”, 1958 (to appear).Google Scholar
Idem , “The diagnostic and predictive accuracy of the Weschler Memory Scale in psychiatric patients over 65”, J. Ment. Sci., 1958, 104, 1111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yates, A. J., “The validity of some psychological tests of brain damage”, Psychol. Bull., 1954, 51, No. 4, 359–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.