A New Measure of Visual Location Learning and Memory: Development and Psychometric Properties for the Brown Location Test (BLT)

Abstract

There are a variety of well-established neuropsychological tests that are helpful in identifying global and specific verbal memory deficits. In contrast, tests of visual memory have produced less consistent results likely due in part to confounding variables such as verbal encodability, administration difficulties, and insufficient differentiation of among types of visual memory. The Brown Location Test (BLT) was designed to specifically measure visual memory for location of identical objects (dots) and address limitations found in commonly employed visual memory tests. This paper describes the empirical basis for the BLT and reports the psychometric properties of the test. Results indicate good internal and alternate form reliabilities. Factor analysis of a brief test battery confirmed that BLT performance is generally independent of verbal memory and global intellectual abilities. BLT performance declined with age, but there was no association between performance and gender, education, or intellectual functioning. In view of the favorable psychometric properties observed during preliminary studies, additional normative and validation studies in healthy and patient populations are warranted.

Keywords:

• Learning
• Location
• Memory
• Spatial
• Visual

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Portions of this project were funded by the National Institutes of Health grants R01-CA101318 and R01-AG19771. We would like to thank the Neuropsychology Program, Department of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School, and the Psychology Departments at Louisiana Tech University and Eastern Connecticut State University for assistance in carrying out this project.

Notes

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed).

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed).

^a CVLT-II data taken from the standardization sample (Delis et al., 2000).