The Nombela 2.0 semantic battery: an updated Spanish instrument for the study of semantic processing

Abstract

In this study, the Nombela 2.0 semantic battery is presented. This is a new version of its earlier precedent: the battery Nombela (I), in an attempt to improve it (dealing with ceiling effects) and reducing the application time by decreasing the number of tasks. The battery is constructed on a common set of 98 stimuli, including both living and nonliving semantic domains. It consists of five tasks designed to explore category specificity by tapping semantic production and comprehension, using both visual and verbal input. All of the items were rated according to Spanish norms, as stated in a previous study of our group, and all of the tasks were matched across domain on six nuisance variables. The present study has two goals: (i) to make available the updated version (2.0) of the Nombela semantic memory battery and (ii) to characterize and compare the neuropsychological profiles of two different patient groups: mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease, with regard to normal controls.

Keywords:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• category effects
• living–nonliving things
• memory disorders
• mild cognitive impairment

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr Julio Flores, who encouraged us to – finally – start to write this article, as well as for his kindness, generous help, and support in Mexico. We also wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments to an earlier version of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the UNED grant 2011V/PUNED/0012 to FJMM and by a predoctoral fellowship from the Ministry of Education of Spain (FPU13/02064) to ICRR. Part of this work was elaborated in the course of a research stay by FJMM at the Facultad de Psicología de la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (Cuernavaca, Morelos, México), financed by the program “Ayudas Banco Santander-UNED para Estancias en otros Centros de Investigación.”