Australian Norms and Retest Data for the Rey Auditory and Verbal Learning Test

Abstract

This article presents normative data for the Rey Auditory and Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). A representative sample of 390 healthy young adults aged between 18 and 34 living within the Sydney metropolitan area, Australia, completed Form AB of the RAVLT as part of the Macquarie University Neurological Normative Study. Retest data were collected from a subsample of 98 participants after an interval of 1 year. Norms were derived for commonly used measures of the RAVLT and are presented for the whole sample as well as separately for males and females with different levels of education. Age was not found to impact significantly on test performance for this group of young adults, and therefore age‐adjusted norms are not provided. An excel program to calculate RAVLT standard scores (mean of 10 and standard deviation of 3) can be downloaded from http://www.psy.mq.edu.au/RAVLT. Poor test–retest reliability raises concerns about the use of the RAVLT in clinical diagnosis.

Key words:

• Australian norms
• clinical diagnosis
• neuropsychological assessment
• psychometric properties
• RAVLT
• retest data

Notes

1. Years of education are the number of years of completed full‐time study. One year's part‐time study was counted as 0.5 years of education.

2. Educational background was derived from the census question: “What is the highest qualification the person has completed since leaving school.” This was then categorised into “degree/diploma,” “vocational,” and “other.” The “other” category included qualifications that were “not applicable” to the preceding two categories. Nonrespondents or responses that were inadequately described were excluded from these categories.

3. An individual was defined as coming from a non‐English speaking background if either of their parents was born overseas, in a non‐English‐speaking country.