Development of a Psychometrically Equivalent Short Form of the Face–Name Associative Memory Exam for use Along the Early Alzheimer’s Disease Trajectory

Abstract

Neuropsychologists are developing more challenging and specific tests to detect early and subtle changes in cognition related to preclinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The 16-item Face–Name Associative Memory Exam (FNAME-16) is a challenging paired associative memory test able to detect subtle memory changes associated with biomarker evidence of preclinical AD. However, as individuals progress along the AD trajectory, measures that are sensitive at the preclinical stage may become too challenging by the stage of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Our goal was to develop a modified version of the face–name and face–occupation paired associative memory task (FNAME-12) with fewer stimuli and additional learning trials suitable for use in MCI. We administered the FNAME-12A, an alternate version FNAME 12B, the original FNAME-16, and a series of other neuropsychological measures to 65 clinically normal (CN) older adults (aged 65 to 85) and a subsample characterized by MCI (n = 18). The FNAME-12 exhibited psychometric equivalence with the FNAME-16 (r = .77, p < .001) and was correlated with other measures of episodic and semantic memory. The alternate form, FNAME-12B, was highly correlated with FNAME-12A (r = .76, p < .001). Mean performance on the FNAME 12A, stratified by education, was generated. The task could be completed by our MCI group yet remained challenging in the CN group, providing evidence for its utility along the AD trajectory.

Keywords:

• Associative memory
• Preclinical Alzheimer’s disease
• Mild Cognitive Impairment
• Neuropsychology
• Test development.

Notes

¹ Test forms, scoring guidelines, and stimuli for FNAME-12 can be obtained for clinical and research use by emailing the corresponding author.