Determinants of confrontation naming performance

Confrontation naming tests are commonly employed in neuropsychological asse ssment. Surprisingly little work has been done, however, to determine how v arious demographic, linguistic, and disease status variables influence patt erns of performance on these tests. The present study examined data on the Boston Naming Test (BNT) from a total of 1,131 subjects, including 719 norm als, 325 patients with Alzheimer's disease, and 87 patients with temporal l obe epilepsy. The effects of age, education, gender, and diagnostic group w ere examined with respect to overall scores, the influence of phonemic cuin g, and performance on individual items. Profiles of scores on individual it ems were similar across diagnostic groups, suggesting that anomia is charac terized by quantitative rather than qualitative changes in naming performan ce. Age and education systematically influenced scores. There was a signifi cant effect of gender across diagnostic groups (males scoring higher than f emales), which appears to be due to performance on specific items. Phonemic cuing effects were similar across groups. The results are discussed with r espect to the neuropsychological construct of confrontation naming and the clinical interpretation of performance on the BNT. (C) 1999 National Academ y of Neuropsychology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.