A new test of memory for multiple sclerosis I: Format development and stimuli design

Memory tests were often developed for healthy populations. The accuracy of these measures is reduced when administered to patients with neurological d iseases, who may experience physical and/or cognitive symptoms. Also, metho dological factors, for example, spanning the ability spectrum, and content/ format artefacts, may contribute to a decline in test precision. The aim of this study was to develop a new test of memory, which addresses these issu es. The new memory test comprises assessments of recall, paired association , and recognition, at a Task Familiarisation stage and two difficulty level s, for both the verbal and spatial modalities. It was administered to 85 he althy individuals and 100 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). All patien ts were able to attempt each task of the new assessment and there was no in fluence of visual integrity or manual dexterity on memory test performance, supporting the applicability of the tasks to patients with multiple sclero sis. Both the standardisation and validation samples demonstrated a wide ra nge of scores on each section of the new test suggesting that the measure s panned an acceptably broad range of abilities. It seems probable, therefore , that the new assessment offers a more exact measure of verbal and spatial recall, paired association, and recognition memory.