The Psychometric Assessment of Deaf People post on this site (link) has been published in a friendlier form in The Psychologist, Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, Vol 18, Part 12, Dec 2005.

You can download the article here. (67KB pdf file)

© Copyright The British Psychological Society.

The Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test is a nice screening test of everyday memory functioning that at first glance seems reasonable to use with prelingually propfoundly deaf people. However there is still a great deal of adjustment to be made to make it usable, and when adjusted the screening cut-offs become unreliable in unpredictable ways.

These are my rough adaptations for deaf subjects. None of these adaptations are standardised, or necessarily any good. But if they are applied consistently then change in memory can be estimated over time. The RBMT screening cutoffs should not be used.

1. Remembering a name
Fingerspell this, but call her Jane Clark.
(This makes it more verbal than sign, being also visual, and is shorter then c-a-t-h-e-r-i-n-e-t-a-y-l-o-r.)

2. Remembering a hidden belonging
This should be fine as it stands.

3. Remembering an appointment
This is OK but the alarm cannot be used, obviously. Try to find a vibrating alarm. Failing that you could just remind them later. If this is attempted remember you must not prompt at all, so you need an empty reminder like “the alarm is going off now.” Record whatever you do for next time.

4. Picture recognition
May cause problems since you need to be sure the responses are names of objects and not mimes of the object use (as this is a common strategy in anomia. Allow fingerspelled or signed words, but be aware of the miming problem.

5. Immediate prose recall
Sheesh… No good. You need to sign it, but you need to have developed a scoring system based on signed concepts rather than written ones… See below for my best attempt so far.

6. Test pictures
See 4 above.

7. Face recognition
Should be fine.

8. Remembering a short route
Fine for deaf people, but hard to administer generally! Make sure the start point is away from both of your original test positions and indicate “start” and “finish” clearly to the subject.

9. Remembering to deliver a message
Fine.

10. Test face recognition
Be clear that you are asking the subject to say if you showed them the face before not if they have seen the face before. Subjects, particularly in BSL, often understand that to mean “do you know this person?”

11. Orientation
(Borrowed from my adapted MMSE, but following the same order as RBMT…) Ask, in BSL:

YEAR WHAT?

MONTH TODAY WHAT? JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH ETC WHAT?

TODAY, MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY, WHICH?

THIS BUILDING NAME (or number if client’s home) WHAT?

WHAT TOWN THIS?

YOU. HOW OLD?

YOU. BORN. WHEN? (Clarify the year if only birthdate is given.)

BRITAIN GOVERNMENT. PRIME MINISTER (BOSS) WHO? (or NAME WHAT?)

AMERICAN GOVERNMENT. PRESIDENT (BOSS) WHO? (or NAME WHAT?)

The last two are rubbish as they index incidental learning, which is demonstrably lacking for Deaf people. However, they can remain for comparison over time.

12. Date
Fine.

13. Remembering an appointment
See 3 above.

14. Delayed Prose recall
See 5 above.

15. Delayed recall of route
See 8 above.

16. Remembering to deliver a message
See 9 above. Fine.

17. Remembering a name
See 1 above.

18. Remembering a belonging
Fine.


Prose recall:
This needs to be signed fluently and competently. These prompts are really to remind me about the BSL version in my head, so good luck! If you can decode the BSL from these prompts, then remember also that placement is absolutely key in this story.


Immediate recall

Last Monday // where, Brighton // 4 men // each masks have // want rob bank money // one have // gun // gun silver //.

He been shot man // man name Brian // Kelly // self work in bank //

Many people see. // Next day // police // been question question question them // One person – lady been explain // Man, Brave, // he been try punch // man (enumerate) // and fight fight fight.


Delayed recall

Last Monday // where, Brighton // 4 men // each masks have // want rob bank money // one have // gun // gun silver //.

He been shot man // man name Brian // Kelly // self work in bank //

Many people see. // Next day // police // been question question question them // One person – lady been explain // Man, Brave, // he been try punch // man (enumerate) // and fight fight fight.