Validity and diagnostic accuracy of an alternate form of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test

The diagnostic validity of an alternate form of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) is investigated. Subjects were 73 inpatients from a VA Medical Center who were classified as having either intact (n = 41) or impaired (n = 32) memory functions. Employing a counterbalanced design, both groups were administered the standard (Form A) and alternate (Form C) forms of the AVLT. Means for the learning trials, trial VI and the recognition procedure were calculated for the intact and memory-impaired subjects and contrasted for each test. Results suggested that Form C discriminated groups at a level comparable to that of Form A. This impression was confirmed by separate stepwise discriminant analyses for Form A and Form C that yielded identical hit-rates (i.e., 75.3%) in terms of identifying subjects as memory-intact or memory-impaired. These findings suggested that Form C may be used for the assessment of persons with verbal mnemonic deficits with the same degree of confidence that has been attributed to Form A.