Use of the Indented Paragraph test with right hemisphere-damaged stroke patients

The Indented Paragraph reading test has been presented as a useful screening test for identifying hemispatial neglect, as it has been reported to be more sensitive to mild neglect than text with a predictable format (Caplan, 1987). The number of errors made by 42 right hemisphere-damaged stroke subjects on this test was compared with their performance on text with straight margins and unpredictable text, where both right and left margins were irregularly indented. The inter-rater reliability of the paragraphs was checked for 23 subjects. The scores from the three paragraphs were significantly correlated, and all were able to detect mild neglect. Inter-rater reliability was higher when identifying moderate and severe levels of neglect than mild neglect. Performance on the Indented Paragraph was also compared with that on the Star Cancellation and Article Reading subtests of the Behavioural Inattention Test in a separate group of 56 right hemisphere stroke subjects and found to classify patients differently.