BACKGROUND It is important to detect cognitive decline at an early stage, especially before onset of mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Processing speed and working memory are aspects of cognitive function that are associated with cognitive decline. Hand strength is an inexpensive, easily measurable indicator of cognitive decline. However, associations between hand strength, processing spe...

Children aged 8 through 11 (N = 250) were given a word-by-word sentence task in both the visual and auditory modes. The sentences included an object relative clause, a subject relative clause, or a conjoined verb phrase. Each sentence was followed by a true-false question, testing the subject of either the first or second verb. Participants were also given two memory span measures: digit span a...

This correlational study investigated the role of working memory in speech intelligibility, speech intelligibility, language processing and reading in a group of 43 prelingually deaf children with cochlear implants. Using the digit span subtests of the WISC as a measure of working memory capacity, moderate to high correlations were obtained between forward auditory digit span and each of the fo...

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) can be difficult to distinguish in the early stages. This study assessed the utility of neuropsychological assessment in this differential diagnosis among 22 male patients, 15 of whom had PD and seven of whom had PSP. All patients had been diagnosed by clinical neurologic exam and SPECT scan. A battery of tests was administered t...

This study reports age-related declines in context maintenance (Braver et al., 2001) and semantic short-term memory (STM) and evidencc for a relation between the two. A group of younger and older adults completed a context maintenance task (AX-CPT), a semantically oriented STM task (conceptual span), a phonologically oriented STM task (digit span), and a meaning integration task (semantic anoma...

Frontal brain regions are thought to mediate strategic processes that facilitate memory. We hypothesized that children with frontal cerebral infarcts related to sickle cell disease (SCD) would exhibit impairments in long-term and working memory as a result of disruptions in strategic processing. Word-list learning and digit span tasks were used to assess verbal memory and strategic processing i...

We investigated the role of dopamine in working memory by examining effects of withdrawing dopaminergic medication in patients with Parkinson's disease. Resistance to distraction during a delayed response task was abnormally enhanced in Parkinson's disease patients OFF medication relative to controls. Conversely, performance on a backward digit span test was impaired in these same Parkinson's d...

Meta-analyses are presented of sex differences in (1) the (mental) arithmetic subtest of the Wechsler intelligence tests for children and adolescents (the WISC and WPPSI tests), showing that boys obtained a mean advantage of .11d; (2) the (mental) arithmetic subtest of the Wechsler intelligence tests for adults (the WAIS tests) showing a mean male advantage of .47d; (3) the digit span subtest o...

BACKGROUND Longitudinal studies using multi-level models to examine health inequalities in lower and middle income countries (LMICs) are rare. We explored socio-economic gradients in health among small farm members participating in a pesticide-related health and agriculture program in highland Ecuador. METHODS We profiled 24 communities through key informant interviews, secondary data (percen...

Interactive voice response (IVR) systems are computer programs, which interact with people to provide a number of services from business to health care. We examined the ability of an IVR system to administer and score a verbal fluency task (fruits) and the digit span forward and backward in 158 community dwelling people aged between 65 and 92 years of age (full scale IQ of 68-134). Only six par...