Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 20, 2026
06:58
Highlighting and Reducing the Impact of Negative Aging Stereotypes During Older Adults' Cognitive Testing
Published on: January 24, 2020
Within-session practice effects in patients referred for suspected dementia
Kevin Duff1, Gordon Chelune, Kathryn Dennett
1Department of Neurology, Center for Alzheimer's Care, Imaging and Research, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108, USA. kevin.duff@hsc.utah.edu
Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders
|July 21, 2012
Summary
Within-session practice effects (WISPE) show promise in dementia evaluation. Lower WISPE scores correlate with greater dementia severity, suggesting clinical utility for this cognitive measure.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neurology
- Psychometrics
Background:
- Practice effects, traditionally viewed as error, are improvements in cognitive performance from repeated testing.
- Emerging evidence suggests practice effects offer valuable clinical insights.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the clinical utility of within-session practice effects (WISPE) in dementia assessment.
- To determine if WISPE correlates with dementia severity as measured by the Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE).
Main Methods:
- Collected WISPE data over 2 hours from 61 patients suspected of dementia.
- Compared WISPE to MMSE scores, controlling for baseline cognitive performance.
Main Results:
- WISPE significantly correlated with MMSE scores in all patients (partial r = 0.47, p < 0.001; partial r = 0.26, p = 0.046).
- This correlation was stronger in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease (partial r = 0.72, p < 0.01; partial r = 0.58, p = 0.046).
- Lower WISPE scores indicated greater dementia severity (lower MMSE scores) even after accounting for initial cognitive status.
Conclusions:
- WISPE demonstrates potential as a clinically useful measure in dementia evaluations.
- Further longitudinal research is needed to validate these findings and establish clinical applications.
