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

Abstract

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.