Sc. Conway et Re. Ocarroll, AN EVALUATION OF THE CAMBRIDGE CONTEXTUAL READING TEST (CCRT) IN ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE, British journal of clinical psychology, 36, 1997, pp. 623-625
Thirty patients with a diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's disease were
assessed using the traditional National Adult Reading Test (NART) and
also by placing the NART stimulus words in context (meaningful sentenc
es) - the Cambridge Contextual Reading Test (CCRT) condition. Placing
the stimulus words in sentences acted to significantly reduce overall
pronunciation error rates. This beneficial effect was most marked for
more severely cognitively impaired patients. NART performance was sign
ificantly correlated with Mini-Mental State total score; however, CCRT
performance was not. Placing the stimulus words in context acted to i
mprove the performance of more cognitively impaired Alzheimer patients
and thus provides a more valid estimate of premorbid ability compared
with the standard presentation of NART stimulus words in isolation.