How to assess abstract conceptual knowledge: construction, standardization and validation of a new battery of semantic memory tests

Della Rosa, Pasquale Anthony and Catricalà, Eleonora and De Battisti, Silvia and Vinson, David and Vigliocco, Gabriella and Cappa, Stefano F. (2014) How to assess abstract conceptual knowledge: construction, standardization and validation of a new battery of semantic memory tests. Functional Neurology, 29 (1). pp. 47-55. ISSN 1971-3274

[img]
Preview
Text
article.pdf - Published Version

Download (145kB) | Preview
Official URL: http://www.functionalneurology.com/index.php?PAGE=...

Abstract

The neuropsychological investigation of semantic memory 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 multiple-choice 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. To assess 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.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: abstract concepts, battery of tests, semantic memory, standardization, validity
Subjects: 600 Tecnologia - Scienze applicate > 610 Medicina e salute (Classificare qui la tecnologia dei servizi medici)
Depositing User: Marina Spanti
Date Deposited: 16 Dec 2015 16:51
Last Modified: 16 Dec 2015 16:51
URI: http://eprints.bice.rm.cnr.it/id/eprint/11095

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item