Predicted wechsler memory scale-revised scores in a sample of patients with mild, moderate, or severe head injury

Abstracts of 16th Annual Meeting 337 Memory and Delayed Recall indices may be used in patients with clearly defined lateralizing findings and a substantial history of attention and concentration deficits without significantly impacting index score accuracy. Hoffman, R., Tremont, G., Adams, R., & Scott, J. Predicted Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised Scores in a Sample of Patients with Mild, Moderate, or Severe Head Injury. Equations for prorating the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised General Memory (GM) and Delayed Recall (DR) index scores (Woodward & Axelrod, 1995) were confirmed in a clinical sample of 97 patients with mild, moderate, or severe closed head injuries (n = 63) or concussion (n = 34) who were seen for comprehensive neuropsychological testing. Fifty of these patients were involved in litigation related to their injury at the time of this evaluation, 47 were not. Severity of head injury was rated by established criteria including Glascow Coma Scale scores, duration of loss o f consciousness post-injury, and extent of posttraumatic amnesia. Raw scores for Logical Memory I & II, Visual Reproduction I & II, and Verbal Paired Associates I & II were entered into the Woodward and Axelrod prediction equations and the resulting estimated GM and DR index scores were compared with obtained GM and DR index scores. Predicted GM index scores fell within 6 points of the obtained scores for 91% of the sample. Predicted DR index scores fell within 6 points of the obtained scores for 92% of the sample. Six points is well within the standard error of measurement of these index scores. Pearson correlations between estimated and achieved index scores accounted for over 97% of the variance for both GM (r = .982, p < .001) and DR (r = .988, p < .001). Predicted GM scores were on the average slightly lower than actual GM scores (mean difference = -.43) and predicted DR scores were on the average slightly higher than obtained DR scores (mean difference = 1.70). There were no significant differences in accuracy of estimated index scores between litigants and non-litigants or between levels of head injury severity. These findings confirm the earlier cross-validation results reported by Axelrod, Woodard, et al., 1996 in a mixed sample of traumatic brain injury and other neurological insult. This data suggests that the Woodward and Axelrod method of estimating weighted score sums for WMS-R General Memory and Delayed Recall indices may be used in patients with a history of mild to severe closed head injury or concussion either in litigation or not in litigation without significantly impacting index score accuracy. Holdwick, D. J., & Wingenfeld, S. A. Taking the PASAT Induces Negative Mood: The Subjective Experience of PASAT Testing. The relationship between mood and attentional testing was examined in 80 college students. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two negative mood induction procedures (sad, anxious), a positive mood, or a neutral procedure. Following mood induction, sad and anxious groups reported significantly more negative affect than the positive and negative groups, which showed no change on mood measures. Following completion of the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT), no group differences were found. The sad and anxious groups retained their elevated negative mood states, whereas the positive and neutral mood groups showed significant increases in negative mood states. These results are consistent with clinical reports (Lezak, 1995) that the PASAT is a stressful test. Results raise the question to what extent participants' subjective experience of the PASAT may interfere with their performance on the task.  (...truncated)