[Content analysis of the Cognitive Screening Test (CST14)]

The factorial structure of the CST14 was analysed and its relationship with several tests of cognitive function examined. Participants were 106 consecutive attendants of a psychogeriatric day care centre (75 women, 31 men). Their mean age was 77.7 (SD = 6.4). Factor analysis of CST14-scores revealed four principal components accounting for 66% of the explanatory variance. The factors reflected knowledge of current and last queen, orientation to date, day, age and time of day, date of birth, and home address. A stepwise regression model including measures of episodic recall, episodic recognition, confrontation naming and category fluency explained 55% of the variance in CST-scores. No explanatory variance was left for measures of visual and visuospatial perception (thematic apperception and clock reading). Dissociations between items of the CST may reveal individual profiles of impaired and relatively intact cognitive functions, such as preserved episodic memory (orientation to date) in aphasic patients.