The National Adult Reading Test (NART) is a widely accepted and commonly used method in clinical settings for estimating premorbid intelligence levels of (initially) English-speaking patients with dementia in neuropsychological research and practice.[1] Such tests are called hold tests as these abilities are thought to be spared, or "held" following neurological injury or decline. The NART was developed by Hazel Nelson in the 1980s in Britain and published in 1982.[2] The test comprises 50 written words in British English which all have irregular spellings (e.g. "aisle"), so as to test the participant's vocabulary rather than their ability to apply regular pronunciation rules. The manual includes equations for converting NART scores to predicted IQ scores on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.
| National Adult Reading Test | |
|---|---|
| Purpose | estimating premorbid intelligence |
The NART is widely used in research settings because a measure of premorbid intelligence is rarely available. However, the Lothian Birth Cohort Study has such data. Researchers from this study demonstrated that the correlation between NART scores and age 11 IQ was moderately high at 0.60. This suggests that the NART can be used as a hold test, as a proxy for premorbid intelligence.[1] Other work has suggested that NART offers greater predictive validity than using demographic data alone, or use of the best performing IQ sub-test score.[3]
Revisions
editThe British NART was re-standardized in 1991 to enable calculation of predicted IQ on the newer WAIS-R[4] and again in 2016 to provide premorbid estimates on the most recent WAIS-IV.[5] There are two versions of the NART devised for use in North America; both feature a modified word list and re-standardization of predicted IQ. The NART-R, published in 1989, was designed for use in the United States and Canada.[6][7] NART-R comprises an extended list of 61 words chosen to have irregular pronunciations in North American English. The AMNART was developed independently in 1987 but unpublished until 1991 and comprises 50 words selected to be familiar to speakers of American English (for example gaoled and drachm were removed).[8] There is also a New Zealand version called NZART, an Australian version called AUSNART, a Swedish version called NART-SWE, a Polish version called PART, a Korean version called KART, a French version called fNART, a Japanese version called JART, and a Danish called DART. Norwegian and Dutch versions have also been proposed. A number of abbreviated versions have also been proposed,[9][10][11][12] along with a variant that presents test words in semantic and syntactic context.[13] The validity prediction limits of many of the international and abbreviated variants have been evaluated, indicating good performance for a broad range of IQ scores but with a reduced capability to accurately assess patients of very high or very low premorbid ability.[14][15]
References
edit- ^ a b McGurn, B; Starr, JM; Topfer, JA; Pattie, A; Whiteman, MC; Lemmon, HA; Whalley, LJ; Deary, IJ (2004). "Pronunciation of irregular words is preserved in dementia, validating premorbid IQ estimation". Neurology. 62 (7): 1184–1186. doi:10.1212/01.wnl.0000103169.80910.8b. PMID 15079021. S2CID 18106116.
- ^ Nelson, Hazel E. (1982). The National Adult Reading Test (NART): test manual. Windsor: NFER-Nelson.
- ^ Bright, Peter; van der Linde, Ian (2020-01-02). "Comparison of methods for estimating premorbid intelligence". Neuropsychological Rehabilitation. 30 (1): 1–14. doi:10.1080/09602011.2018.1445650. ISSN 0960-2011. PMID 29526134.
- ^ Nelson, Hazel E. & Willison, Jonathan (1991). The National Adult Reading Test (NART). Windsor: NFER-Nelson.
- ^ Bright, Peter; Hale, Emily; Gooch, Vikki Jayne; Myhill, Thomas; van der Linde, Ian (2018). "The National Adult Reading Test: restandardisation against the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Fourth edition". Neuropsychological Rehabilitation. 28 (6): 1019–1027. doi:10.1080/09602011.2016.1231121. ISSN 0960-2011. PMID 27624393.
- ^ Blair, Jennifer R. & Spreen, Otfried (1989). "Predicting Premorbid IQ: A Revision of the National Adult Reading Test". The Clinical Neuropsychologist. 3 (2): 129–136. doi:10.1080/13854048908403285.
- ^ Spreen, O & Strauss, E. (1998). A compendium of neuropsychological tests: Administration, norms and commentary. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Grober, Ellen & Sliwinski, Martin (1991). "Development and Validation of a Model for Estimating Premorbid Verbal Intelligence in the Elderly". Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. 13 (6): 933–949. doi:10.1080/01688639108405109. PMID 1779032.
- ^ van der Linde, Ian; Bright, Peter (2018-10-18). Forloni, Gianluigi (ed.). "A genetic algorithm to find optimal reading test word subsets for estimating full-scale IQ". PLOS ONE. 13 (10): e0205754. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0205754. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 6193671. PMID 30335801.
- ^ McGrory, Sarah; Austin, Elizabeth J.; Shenkin, Susan D.; Starr, John M.; Deary, Ian J. (September 2015). "From "aisle" to "labile": A hierarchical National Adult Reading Test scale revealed by Mokken scaling". Psychological Assessment. 27 (3): 932–943. doi:10.1037/pas0000091. ISSN 1939-134X. PMC 4547520. PMID 26302224.
- ^ Beardsall, Lynn; Brayne, Carol (February 1990). "Estimation of verbal intelligence in an elderly community: A prediction analysis using a shortened NART". British Journal of Clinical Psychology. 29 (1): 83–90. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8260.1990.tb00851.x. ISSN 0144-6657. PMID 2310873.
- ^ Uttl, Bob (December 2002). "North American Adult Reading Test: Age Norms, Reliability, and Validity". Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. 24 (8): 1123–1137. doi:10.1076/jcen.24.8.1123.8375. ISSN 1380-3395. PMID 12650237.
- ^ Beardsall, Lynn (May 1998). "Development of the Cambridge Contextual Reading Test for improving the estimation of premorbid verbal intelligence in older persons with dementia". British Journal of Clinical Psychology. 37 (2): 229–240. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8260.1998.tb01297.x. ISSN 0144-6657. PMID 9631210.
- ^ van der Linde, Ian; Bright, Peter (2024-09-19). "The prediction limits of the National Adult Reading Test and its abbreviated and international variants". Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society: 1–7. doi:10.1017/S1355617724000420. ISSN 1355-6177.
- ^ van der Linde, Ian; Horsman, Lewis; Bright, Peter (2022-11-26). "The validity of abbreviated forms of the National Adult Reading Test and Spot-the-Word 2 for estimating full-scale IQ". Neuropsychological Rehabilitation. 32 (10): 2534–2543. doi:10.1080/09602011.2021.1958874. ISSN 0960-2011. PMID 34323664.
Further reading
edit- Lezak, Muriel D.; Howieson, Diane B.; Bigler, Erin D.; Tranel, Daniel (2012). Neuropsychological Assessment (Fifth ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-539552-5. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
- Peter J Anderson (April 2013). "Leader of the Pack". Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (Review). 19 (4). doi:10.1017/S1355617713000337. S2CID 144213730.
- Strauss, Esther; Sherman, Elizabeth M.; Spreen, Otfried (2006). A Compendium of Neuropsychological Tests: Administration, Norms, and Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-515957-8. Retrieved 14 July 2013.