TY - JOUR
T1 - How to assess abstract conceptual knowledge
T2 - Construction, standardization and validation of a new battery of semantic memory tests
AU - Della Rosa, Pasquale Anthony
AU - Catricalà, Eleonora
AU - De Battisti, Silvia
AU - Vinson, David
AU - Vigliocco, Gabriella
AU - Cappa, Stefano F.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - The neuropsychological investigation of semanticmemory has mainly focused on concrete concepts, while abstract concepts have been relatively neglected. We describe a new battery for assessing abstract concepts in brain-damaged patients. The battery includes three different tests: an association task, a multiplechoice naming-to-description task and a sentence completion task. The three tasks are based on the same 40 stimuli belonging to different categories of abstract concepts and they are tightly controlled for variables that can account for quantitative differences between abstract concepts (i.e. concreteness, imageability, context availability, familiarity, age of acquisition, mode of acquisition, emotional valence and arousal). The three tasks showed high reliability. Normative data were collected from 108 healthy Italian adults. Toassess its sensitivity, the battery was administered to 13 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease who performed worse than matched controls. Significant correlations were also found between the tests and other semantic memory tests, supporting the validity of the battery.
AB - The neuropsychological investigation of semanticmemory has mainly focused on concrete concepts, while abstract concepts have been relatively neglected. We describe a new battery for assessing abstract concepts in brain-damaged patients. The battery includes three different tests: an association task, a multiplechoice naming-to-description task and a sentence completion task. The three tasks are based on the same 40 stimuli belonging to different categories of abstract concepts and they are tightly controlled for variables that can account for quantitative differences between abstract concepts (i.e. concreteness, imageability, context availability, familiarity, age of acquisition, mode of acquisition, emotional valence and arousal). The three tasks showed high reliability. Normative data were collected from 108 healthy Italian adults. Toassess its sensitivity, the battery was administered to 13 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease who performed worse than matched controls. Significant correlations were also found between the tests and other semantic memory tests, supporting the validity of the battery.
KW - Abstract concepts
KW - Battery of tests
KW - Semantic memory
KW - Standardization
KW - Validity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84904253349&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84904253349&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Article
C2 - 25014049
AN - SCOPUS:84904253349
VL - 29
SP - 47
EP - 55
JO - Functional Neurology
JF - Functional Neurology
SN - 0393-5264
IS - 1
ER -