Clinical Manifestations

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychometrics
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Hispanics are the largest U.S. minority group, with a significant portion speaking Spanish.
• Limited access to cognitive tests exists for U.S. Hispanics due to examiner shortages and a lack of culturally relevant tools.
• Standardized Spanish-language cognitive tests optimized for the U.S. Hispanic population are needed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate CCAB-Español, a computerized cognitive test adapted for the U.S. Hispanic population.
• To ensure the test maintains linguistic and cultural relevance while preserving psychometric properties.
• To address the need for accessible and reliable cognitive assessment tools for Spanish speakers.

Main Methods:

• CCAB-Español was developed as a computerized, in-home cognitive test mirroring the English CCAB.
• Stimuli were adapted by native Spanish speakers to ensure cultural and linguistic accuracy and psychometric equivalence.
• Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and scoring methods were refined to accommodate Spanish linguistic and dialectal variations.

Main Results:

• The normative sample included 108 diverse Spanish-speaking adults with varied backgrounds.
• CCAB-Español demonstrated strong test-retest reliability, comparable to the English version (e.g., story recall r = .83).
• The test showed high accuracy and reliability across 27 cognitive tasks.

Conclusions:

• CCAB-Español provides an accurate and reliable cognitive assessment for Spanish speakers.
• The test's psychometric properties are similar to the English CCAB, making it a valuable tool.
• Adaptations in stimuli, ASR, and scoring ensure fairness and accuracy for diverse Spanish-speaking populations.