Orientation and three-word recall in predicting memory. Age effects and false-negative errors

The purpose of this study was to determine how well orientation and three-word recall predict performance on a neuropsychological measure of short-term memory. The relationship between orientation/three-word recall and Logical Memory II (LMII) of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised was analyzed using Pearson coefficients and discriminant function analyses. An initial analysis of three patient groups (cerebrovascular accident, mixed neurologic disorders, and traumatic brain injury), which differed also by age, revealed that orientation was insignificantly correlated with LMII across all patient groups. Three-word recall was most highly correlated with LMII with the older, CVA group and least correlated with the younger, traumatic brain injury sample. Discriminant function analyses in predicting impaired or normal LMII scores from orientation and three-word recall revealed the lowest false-negative error rate for memory impairment with the CVA group and the highest false-negative error rate with the traumatic brain injury group. Subsequent analyses with two younger, age-matched groups (a traumatic brain injury group and a mixed neurological group) confirmed that the above findings were related to age and not to diagnosis. Implications for using mental status measures to predict cognitive functioning in different clinical and age groups are discussed.