Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T20:47:22.065Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Performance discrepancies on the California Verbal Learning Test–Children's Version (CVLT–C) in children with traumatic brain injury

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2004

JACOBUS DONDERS  and
MICHAEL T. MINNEMA
JACOBUS DONDERS
Affiliation:
Psychology Service, Mary Free Bed Hospital & Rehabilitation Center, Grand Rapids, Michigan
MICHAEL T. MINNEMA
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

One hundred sixty-seven children with traumatic brain injury (TBI), selected from an 8-year series of consecutive referrals to a Midwestern rehabilitation hospital, completed the California Verbal Learning Test–Children's Version (CVLT–C) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Third Edition (WISC–III) within 1 year after injury. A large proactive interference (PI) effect, defined as performance on the second list that was at least 1.5 standard deviations below that on the 1st one, was statistically significantly more common in this clinical sample (21%) than in the CVLT–C standardization sample (11%). Other performance discrepancies, including retroactive interference, rapid forgetting, and retrieval problems, occurred at approximately the same rate in the clinical and standardization samples. Children with anterior cerebral lesions were about 3 times less likely to have a large PI effect than children without such lesions, but the former group performed worse on the first CVLT–C list. The impact of pediatric TBI on a wide range of CVLT–C quantitative variables was mediated by speed of information processing, as assessed by the WISC–III Processing Speed factor index. It is concluded that failure to release from PI is somewhat common, although certainly not universal, in children with TBI. Unlike with adults, anterior cerebral lesions are not associated selectively with an increased risk for PI after pediatric TBI but rather with a reduced efficiency of allocation of cognitive resources. Deficits in speed of information processing appear to be primarily responsible for the learning deficits on the CVLT–C after pediatric TBI. (JINS, 2004, 10, 482–488.)

Keywords

Traumatic brain injuryLearningMemoryProactive interferenceProcessing speed
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , July 2004 , pp. 482 - 488
Copyright
2004 The International Neuropsychological Society

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

REFERENCES

Delis, D.C., Kramer, J.H., Kaplan, E., & Ober, B.A. (1994). California Verbal Learning Test–Children's Version. Austin, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
Donders, J. (1999). Performance discrepancies on the California Verbal Learning Test–Children's Version in the standardization sample. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 5, 26–31.Google Scholar
Donders, J. (2001). Using a short form of the WISC–III: Sinful or smart? Child Neuropsychology, 7, 99–103.Google Scholar
Donders, J. & Warschausky, S. (1996). A structural equation analysis of the WISC–III in children with traumatic head injury. Child Neuropsychology, 2, 185–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gershberg, F.B. & Shimamura, A.P. (1995). Impaired use of organizational strategies in free recall following frontal lobe damage. Neuropsychologia, 13, 1305–1333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gioia, G.A., Isquith, P.K., Guy, S.C., & Kenworthy, L. (2000). Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Hanten, G., Zhang, L., & Levin, H.S. (2002). Selective learning in children after traumatic brain injury. Child Neuropsychology, 8, 107–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, N., Donders, J., & Thompson, E.H. (2000). Novel learning abilities after traumatic head injury in children. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 15, 47–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kail, R. (2002). Developmental change in proactive interference. Child Development, 73, 1703–1714.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, H.S., Song, J., Scheibel, R.S., Fletcher, J.M., Harward, H.N., & Chapman, S.B. (2000). Dissociation of frequency and recency processing from list recall after severe closed head injury in children and adolescents. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 22, 1–15.Google Scholar
Mangeot, S., Armstrong, K., Colvin, A.N., Yeates, K.O., & Taylor, H.G. (2002). Long-term executive function deficits in children with traumatic brain injuries: Assessment using the Behavior Rating of Executive Function (BRIEF). Child Neuropsychology, 8, 271–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, C.R., Bauer, R.M., Grande, L., Gilmore, R., & Roper, S. (2001). The role of the frontal lobes in memory: Evidence from unilateral frontal resections for relief of intractable epilepsy. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 16, 571–585.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, L.J. & Donders, J. (2003). Prediction of educational outcome after pediatric traumatic brain injury. Rehabilitation Psychology, 48, 237–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Numan, B., Sweet, J.J., & Ranganath, C. (2000). Use of the California Verbal Learning Test to detect proactive interference in the traumatically brain injured. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 56, 553–562.3.0.CO;2-Q>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Precourt, S., Robaey, P., Lamothe, I., Lassonde, M., Sauerwein, H., & Moghrabi, A. (2002). Verbal cognitive functioning and learning in girls treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia by chemotherapy with or without cranial irradiation. Developmental Neuropsychology, 21, 173–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roman, M.J., Delis, D.C., Willerman, L., Magulac, M., Demadura, T.L., De La Pena, J.J., Loftus, C., Walsh, J., & Kracun, M. (1998). Impact of pediatric traumatic brain injury on components of verbal memory. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 20, 245–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schinka, J.A., Vanderploeg, R.D., & Greblo, P. (1998). Frequency of WISC–III and WAIS–R pairwise subtest differences. Psychological Assessment, 10, 171–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sowell, E.R., Delis, D., Stiles, J., & Jernigan, T.L. (2001). Improved memory functioning and frontal lobe maturation between childhood and adolescence: A structural MRI study. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 7, 312–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M.L., Leonard, G., Crane, J., & Milner, B. (1995). The effects of frontal- or temporal-lobe lesions on susceptibility to interference in spatial memory. Neuropsychologia, 33, 275–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teasdale, G. & Jennett, B. (1974). Assessment of coma and impaired consciousness: A practical scale. Lancet, 2, 81–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tremont, G., Mittenberg, W., & Miller, L.J. (1999). Acute intellectual effects of pediatric head trauma. Child Neuropsychology, 5, 104–114.Google Scholar
Vriezen, E.R. & Pigott, S.E. (2002). The relationship between parental report on the BRIEF and performance-based measures of executive function in children with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury. Child Neuropsychology, 8, 296–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wechsler, D. (1991). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Third Edition. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
Welsh, M.C., Pennington, B.F., & Groisser, D.B. (1991). A normative-developmental study of executive function: A window on prefrontal functioning in children. Developmental Neuropsychology, 7, 131–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, D.A., Nortz, M.J., Mandernach, T., Huntington, K., & Steiner, R.D. (2001). Deficits in memory strategy use related to prefrontal dysfunction during early development: Evidence from children with phenylketonuria. Neuropsychology, 15, 221–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, D.H., Levin, H.S., & Eisenberg, H.M. (1990). Mild head injury classification. Neurosurgery, 27, 422–428.Google Scholar
Williams, J., Phillips, T., Griebel, M.L., Sharp, G.B., Lange, B., Edgar, T., & Simpson, P. (2001). Patterns of memory performance in children with controlled epilepsy on the CVLT–C. Child Neuropsychology, 7, 15–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yeates, K.O., Blumenstein, E., Patterson, C.M., & Delis, D.C. (1995). Verbal learning and memory following pediatric closed-head injury. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 1, 78–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yeates, K.O., Taylor, H.G., Wade, S.L., Drotar, D., Stancin, T., & Minich, N. (2002). A prospective study of short- and long-term neuropsychological outcomes after traumatic brain injury in children. Neuropsychology, 16, 514–523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar