Memory & CVLT

Brooke Schauder, PhD

Subtypes of Memory

• Short Term: Temporary storage while it is being processed (1-2 – 20 seconds for auditory information) less for visual

• Working Memory: Manipulating information: limited to 7 +- 2

• Long Term: Permanent storage with unlimited capacity

Types of Long Term Memory

• Explicit: Factual (names, dates, phone numbers)– Can be learned as well as forgotten rapidly– Dependent on hippocampus/temporal lobe

• Implicit: Procedural, less conscious, learned slowly with repetition/practice, less easily forgotten

3 Basic Components of Learning/Memory

• Encoding (learning): Transformation of a sensory input into meaningful information that can be cognitively held

• Storage: Holding or retaining information

• Retrieval (recall): Process by which stored information is extracted from memory

What We Remember

• Read Only : 10%• Hear Only: 20%• Observe Only: 30%• Observe and Hear: 50%• Discuss: 70%• Experience: 80% • Teach: 90%

Life Time Trajectory

• Memory peaks between age 20-40• Memory for SEQUENCES first declines with

age, then memory for CONTENT

• Primacy and Recency Effects

• Primacy: Recalling information from the beginning of a list

• Recency: Recalling information from the end of a list

Common Causes of Memory Problems

• General Medical Condition (e.g. hypertension)• Drugs/Medications• Normal Aging• Poor attention and concentration• Vision or Hearing Loss• Depression and Anxiety

Purpose of California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT-II)

• Can distinguish between learning/attention problem and memory impairment

• Ability to learn and retain verbal information• Differentiation between depression and

neurological disorders (e.g. Alzheimer’s)• Detecting Brain Damage in patients with TBI,

drug abuse, and other brain damage• Characterizing memory profiles in patients with

schizophrenia, depression, LD, etc.• Detection of inadequate effort or malingering

CVLT-II

• Can be administered to people between ages 16 and 89.

• Approximately 45 minutes total admin. time with delay

• Child format for individuals ages 5-16: CVLT-C

Administration

• Read list in 18 – 20 seconds (slightly faster than 1 word/minute

• Wait 15 seconds after person has stopped, ask if they have any more, and mark Q on the record form when this takes place

• During delay of 20 minutes, must administer NON-VERBAL assessments only

Errors and Scoring• Intrusion Error (commission type): Word not

from list– A word can be both an intrusion and a repetition and

have double error• If person repeats word and is self-cue(reminding

self), do NOT record or count as error• If unclear, ask patient if they have said that work

or not – have them tell you and you cannot tell them whether they have or not

• Count as error of repetition if they have said the word already

Intrusion Errors

• Category Intrusion: word that is semantically related to one of the 4 categories, such as “snap pea”

• Non-Category Intrusion: not – related (“flip-flop”) aka “confabulation”

• Synonym/Subordinate: such as “bookshelf” for “bookcase”

• Across list intrusion: (list A interferes with list B) (cannot have these errors on trials 1-5)

Interpretation

• List A, trial 1: index of auditory attention• Those with impaired attention or

Anxiety/Depression (ADHD) poor trial 1, but normal to above average learning slope

• Most people have comparable raw and standardized scores on List A, trial 1 with DS Forward on WAIS/WISC

Memory Strategies used in CVLT-II

• Semantic Clustering (computerized scoring can generate whether a person did this or not)-remembers words in categories

-This is an EFFECTIVE strategy• Serial Clustering (less effective strategy) person

may be “stimulus bound” (more in Parkinson’s) - Recency Effects: also stimulus bound individuals-Recency Effects also occur in people with severe

encoding (learning) deficits

Interpretation

• Most people have primacy, rather than recency effect

• Recall Consistency: poor consistency of words learned across trials may represent haphazard or disorganized learning

• (see handout and “artistic graphs” for more interpretive information