A new test of memory for multiple sclerosis 1: Format development and stimuli design

Abstract

Memory tests were often developed for healthy populations. The accuracy of these measures is reduced when administered to patients with neurological diseases, who may experience physical and/or cognitive symptoms. Also, methodological factors, for example, spanning the ability spectrum, and content/format artefacts, may contribute to a decline in test precision. The aim of this study was to develop a new test of memory, which addresses these issues. The new memory test comprises assessments of recall, paired association, and recognition, at a Task Familiarisation stage and two difficulty levels, for both the verbal and spatial modalities. It was administered to 85 healthy individuals and 100 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). All patients were able to attempt each task of the new assessment and there was no influence of visual integrity or manual dexterity on memory test performance, supporting the applicability of the tasks to patients with multiple sclerosis. Both the standardisation and validation samples demonstrated a wide range of scores on each section of the new test suggesting that the measure spanned an acceptably broad range of abilities. It seems probable, therefore, that the new assessment offers a more exact measure of verbal and spatial recall, paired association, and recognition memory.

Brief International Cognitive Assessment for MS (BICAMS): international standards for validation

“…The committee reviewed basic psychometric standards from the literature [10,21-26] that are widely accepted for validation of behavioral or psychological outcome measures. Recognizing that economic resources for validation will vary across country and region, the committee discussed priorities for validation, that is, those aspects of research design that would enable empirical appraisal of core psychometrics that may engender confidence and wide application of BICAMS.…”

Music mnemonics aid Verbal Memory and Induce Learning – Related Brain Plasticity in Multiple Sclerosis

“…However, no convincing evidence for effective pharmacological or other treatments for memory impairment in MS does exist (He et al, 2011). Furthermore, despite new memory test development (Camp et al, 2001) and several research studies aimed at isolating the memory problems in MS (Marie and Defer, 2001; Minden et al, 1990), the exact nature of memory deficits in MS remains unclear. One major theoretical approach attributes memory deficits in MS to inadequate learning processes (DeLuca et al, 1994) including reduced information processing speed which may prevent “deep encoding” of learning material (Rao et al, 1989; Litvan et al, 1988).…”