Recall and recognition of similarities items in neuropsychological assessment: Memory, validity, and meaning.

The current study examined whether the Memory Similarities Extended Test (M-SET), a memory test based on the Similarities subtest of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, Second Edition (WASI-II), has value in neuropsychological testing. The relationship of M-SET measures of cued recall (CR) and recognition memory (REC) to brain injury severity and memory scores from the Wechsler Memory Scale, Fourth Edition (WMS-IV) was analyzed in examinees with traumatic brain injuries ranging from mild to severe. Examinees who passed standard validity tests were divided into groups with intracranial injury (CT + ve, n = 18) and without intracranial injury (CT-ve, n = 50). In CT + ve only, CR was significantly correlated with Logical Memory I (LMI: rs = .62) and Logical Memory II (LMII: rs = .65). In both groups, there were smaller correlations with delayed visual memory (VRII: rs = .38; rs = .44) and psychomotor speed (Coding: rs = .29; rs = .29). The REC score was neither an indicator of memory ability nor an internal indicator of performance validity. There were no differences in M-SET or WMS-IV scores for CT-ve and CT + ve, and reasons for this are discussed. It is concluded that M-SET has utility as an incidental cued recall measure.

The truth effect in relation to neuropsychological functioning in traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVES: Individuals with traumatic brain injury may have difficulty accepting other viewpoints, but there is not yet a clinical test to measure the readiness with which one accepts new information as true. This study examined the truth effect-the tendency to rate previously seen material as being 'more true' than newly presented material-to explore whether individual differences in the truth effect can be quantified and related to memory or other neuropsychological variables, including brain injury severity. METHODS: Seventy-four individuals being seen for neuropsychological assessment were asked to classify 15 semantic statements as biographical, scientific or historical and were later asked to rate 10 of the previously viewed statements and 10 new statements as either true or false. RESULTS: A truth effect was clearly present in two groups which had gained familiarity with opposite sets of statements. As well, individuals with better immediate verbal memories rated more of the previously seen statements as true. CONCLUSIONS: A verbal encoding factor appears to underlie the truth effect and may explain the difficulties that some TBI patients have in accepting newly presented information as true.