Date of Award
10-2024
Document Type
Doctoral Research Project
Degree Name
Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Julie S. Costopoulos
Second Advisor
Vida L. Tyc
Third Advisor
Mark T. Harvey
Fourth Advisor
Anthony LoGalbo
Abstract
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, and early identification allows for medical intervention, future planning, and increased quality of life for individuals and their caregivers. The Shepherd Verbal Learning Task (SVLT) was developed to assess learning and memory in older adults with suspected cognitive impairment. The Learning Ratio (LR) is a novel process score that accounts for individual differences in initial performance and future learning potential and has demonstrated greater sensitivity to AD than traditional raw learning scores (RLS). A clinical sample of 1107 participants was obtained from the Health First Memory Disorder Clinic to include individuals diagnosed with AD (n = 467), mild cognitive impairment (MCI; n = 421), depression (n = 49), anxiety (n = 7), mixed depression and anxiety (n = 29), and normal cognition (n = 130). Participants were administered a brief neuropsychological evaluation, which included learning and memory, attention and processing speed, executive functioning, language, visuospatial skills, and adaptive functioning tasks. The SVLT LR was compared against memory, attention, and executive functioning measures. The SVLT LR could distinguish between amnestic and non-amnestic subtypes of MCI. The optimal SVLT LR cutoff for classifying AD was 0.472, yielding a sensitivity of 0.816 and a specificity of 0.862. Aggregated LR, which includes the LR of a visual memory task, was best at distinguishing cognitive impairment from cognitively normal as compared to SVLT LR, SVLT RLS, and Aggregated RLS. The SVLT showed great promise in early detection of Alzheimer’s disease.
Recommended Citation
Collyer, Alexandra Joy, "The Shepherd Verbal Learning Task: Unveiling Learning Ratio Profiles in a Memory Disorder Clinic Population" (2024). Theses and Dissertations. 1579.
https://repository.fit.edu/etd/1579