Objective
: The assessment of visuospatial abilities and memory using tasks such as the Taylor Complex Figure Task (TCFT) is biased for older adults with low formal education. We devised a "Simplified" version of the TCFT designed to assess older adults with low educational background and provide preliminary evidence of its psychometric properties.
Methods
: We evaluated a heterogeneous sample of healthy older adults and patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease dementia using the simplified TCFT and other neuropsychological measures.
Results
: Our results suggest that the test copy, immediate and delayed recall have high inter-rater agreement and internal consistency, significant correlations with other tests of visuospatial abilities, memory and intelligence, and also detected significant group differences between controls and patients.
Conclusion
: Our study presents a new measure for assessing low-educated elderly with promising evidence of validity and reliability.
Alzheimer's disease; complex figure test; low formal education; neuropsychological assessment; mild cognitive impairment
sTCFT: Simplified Taylor Complex Figure Test; MCI: Mild Cognitive Impairment; MD: Multiple Domain; IR: Immediate Recall; DR: Delayed Recall.
sTCFT: Simplified Taylor Complex Figure Test; IR: Immediate Recall; DR: Delayed Recall; DRS: Dementia Rating Scale; RAVLT: Rey Auditory- Verbal Learning Test.