Arthur N. Wiens

Rey auditory-verbal learning test: Development of norms for healthy young adults

Abstract The Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) has been widely used in clinical neuropsychology because of the usefulness of its multiple measures of learning and memory and its ease of administration. Normative data has been reported for some patient populations but little normative data exists for healthy individuals. This study reports AVLT data for 222 job applicants, presently employed in a variety of occupations, who had previously passed basic-academic-skills tests and physical examinations and were motivated to perform well on AVLT testing. AVLT normative data are presented by WAIS-R FSIQ, Age, Education, and by Age and FSIQ combined. We also present a proposal for sharing and pooling data to expand the data matrix we present.

Psychometric and clinical test-retest reliability of the halstead impairment index in a sample of healthy, young, normal men

Twenty-nine normal young men were administered the Halstead Battery and two additional tests commonly employed by neuropsychologists and were re-examined by the same instruments 20 weeks later. The results indicate that for our sample of normal Ss the classification of an individual as “normal” by the Halstead Impairment Index is a clinical judgment with a very high degree of reliability. Data from two comparison groups (patients with cerebrovascular disease and patients with chronic schizophrenia) lent support to this conclusion. A similar study with other samples of normal Ss as well as other better defined and matched psychiatric and brain-damaged Ss is needed both to cross-validate and to extend this finding in order to increase the practicing clinicians confidence in his interpretation of an obtained value falling in the normal range for a given individual. Clinical neuropsychology is rapidly developing to the point that such validity (clinical reliability) for such individual judgments is no longer a hope but an increasingly more probable expectation.

Estimating WAIS-R FSIQ from the national adult reading test-revised in normal subjects

Abstract Examined the accuracy of the North American revision of the National Adult Reading Test (NART-R; Blair & Spreen, 1989) in predicting current WAIS-R FSIQ scores in a sample of 302 healthy job applicants. Also wished to establish adult norms for the NART-R according to age, education, and level of intelligence. Finally, also compared the accuracy of the NART-R in predicting WAIS-R FSIQ scores with that of the Reading Subtest of the Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised. Using the prediction equations developed by Blair and Spreen, estimated and obtained mean WAIS-R FSIQs were found to be nearly identical for the group as a whole, with r = .46 (p < 001). However, WAIS-R FSIQ was overestimated by NART-R performance among lower IQ groups, and underestimated among higher IQ groups. The WRAT-R Reading Score correlation with WAIS-R FSIQ was r = .45 (p < .001); the Reading Score also underestimated among higher IQ groups. Using the NART-R, 95% of the subjects had less than 15-point estimated-obtained IQ dif...

Paced auditory serial addition test: Adult norms and moderator variables

This study examined the performance of a sample of 821 healthy job applicants on the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT). Subjects had previously passed basic academic skills tests and physical examinations and were deemed free of cognitive impairment and medical illness. They were also motivated to perform well on cognitive tests. Gender, ethnicity, and education were not significant moderator variables in our subjects. Age and IQ did significantly affect PASAT test results. Normative data are stratified by age and WAIS-R Full Scale IQ scores to be useful to those who administer the PASAT in clinical practice.

Interviewer influence on durations of interviewee speech

Summary Two experiments are described in which the interviewer, using open-ended non-directive questions, controlled the durations of each of his own comments throughout an interview in order to study his influence on the durations of the interviewees responses. Two durations of interviewers utterance (5 sec versus 10 sec) were employed in counter-balanced designs. Although the interviews seemed to be typical non-directive ones, the results show the striking influence of changes in the interviewers speaking durations on corresponding durations of speech of interviewees. For the two durations employed by E in the present study, a change in his own single units of speech from 5 sec to 10 sec was associated with a similar increase in the duration of single units of speech he elicited from S (i.e., a change from roughly 25 sec to 50 sec). Comparable changes were obtained in Ss speech behavior when E changed his own interviewing style from 10-sec utterances to 5-sec utterances.

Electroconvulsive therapy and memory.

Recent research on the effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on memory is critically reviewed. Despite some inconsistent findings, unilateral nondominant ECT appears to affect verbal memory less than bilateral ECT. Adequate research on multiple monitored ECT is lacking. With few exceptions, the research methodologies for assessing memory have been inadequate. Many studies have confounded learning with retention, and only very recently has long term memory been adequately studied. Standardized assessment procedures for short term and long term memory are needed, in addition to more sophisticated assessment of memory processes, the duration of memory loss, and qualitative aspects of memories.

Encoding-decoding of nonverbal emotional messages: Sex differences in spontaneous and enacted expressions

Male and female encoding-decoding of spontaneous and enacted nonverbal affective behavior was evaluated using the Buck (1977) slide-viewing paradigm. The eliciting stimuli were carefully selected and evaluated to insure a comparable emotional impact on both sexes, and all subjects received the same decoding task. Consistent with previous research, females were superior decoders overall. Also as predicted, females were superior encoders, principally when reacting spontaneously to the slides. Given no evidence of differential affective arousal, this sex difference for spontaneous encoding is interpreted to reflect differences in male-female display rules. Contrary to several previous findings spontaneous and enacted encoding measures were not strongly related, especially for males, where display rules may modify their spontaneous and enacted expressive behavior in comparison to females. There was no consistent positive or negative relationship between dimensional or category measures of encoding-decoding for either sex. Future investigations should separately evaluate encoding-decoding phenomena for each sex, employing more precise methods to evaluate the specific nonverbal behaviors actually important to the encoding-decoding communication process.

Comparison of the Auditory-Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) and California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) in a sample of normal subjects

Compared performance on Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test and California Verbal Learning Test. Slightly higher scores were obtained on CVLT variables. No significant differences were found for order of test administration. Results were interpreted to show minimal practice effects for different list-learning tests administered in the same test battery.

IQ and neuropsychological changes following carotid endarterectomy

Abstract Recently published studies have reported clinically significant increases in cognitive functioning in humans following surgical removal of obstructive atheromatous placque from the carotid artery leading from the heart to the brain. Detailed study by us of test-retest changes in group means in our own setting as well as scrutiny of similar test-retest scores for each individual patient comprizing our group of 17 carotid endarterectomy patients, and comparing them to similar detailed analyses in our one normal sample and two additional patient samples which served as reference groups, failed to confirm these earlier reported findings. Rather, our test-retest results with the full WAIS and 11 measures from the Halstead-Reitan Battery were little different from the test-retest changes found in these three reference groups which underwent no surgery. We concluded that the clinically unremarkable changes found in our endarterectomy and three reference samples are little different from the test-retest ...

Personality correlates of nonverbal interview behavior

Measured interviewee nonverbal behaviors, which included selected temporal speech behaviors and duration and frequency of interviewee adaptor and illustrator hand movements and gaze at the interviewer. Ss (N = 30) were evaluated for IQ, field dependence, state-trait anxiety, self-monitoring, introversion-extraversion, neuroticism, and personal characteristics measured by the Gough Adjective Checklist and Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style. As predicted, the experimental Ss responded to the interviewer latency delay with increased latencies of their own and a reduction in illustrator behavior. Length of interviewee speech utterances during the first 10-minute period of “normal” conversation was related to positive self-descriptions, whereas interviewee interruptions were associated with measures of anxiety, poorer self-adjustment and attentional confusion.