The Rapid Naming Test: Development and initial validation in typically aging adults

Abstract

Objective

Progressive word-finding difficulty is a primary cognitive complaint among healthy older adults and a symptom of pathological aging. Classic measures of visual confrontation naming, however, show ceiling effects among healthy older adults. To address the need for a naming test that is sensitive to subtle, age-related word-finding decline, we developed the Rapid Naming Test (RNT), a computerized, one-minute, speeded visual naming test.

Method

Functionally intact older (n = 145) and younger (n = 69) adults completed the RNT. Subsets of older adults also completed neuropsychological tests, a self-report scale of functional decline, amyloid-β PET imaging, and repeat RNT administration to determine test-retest reliability.

Results

RNT scores were normally distributed and exhibited good test-retest reliability. Younger adults performed better than older adults. Within older adults, lower scores were associated with older age. Higher scores correlated with measures of language, processing speed, and episodic learning and memory. Scores were not correlated with visuospatial or working memory tests. Worse performance was related to subjective language decline, even after controlling for a classic naming test and speed. The RNT was also negatively associated with amyloid-β burden.

Conclusions

The RNT appears to be a reliable test that is sensitive to subtle, age-related word-finding decline. Convergent and divergent validity are supported by its specific associations with measures relying on visual naming processes. Ecological validity is supported by its relationship with subjective real-world language difficulties. Lastly, worse performance was related to amyloid-β deposition, an Alzheimer’s disease biomarker. This study represents a key step toward validating a novel, sensitive naming test in typically aging adults.

Keywords:

• Confrontation naming
• word finding
• tip-of-the-tongue
• lexical retrieval
• anomia

Disclosure statement

Dr. Possin has received research funding from Quest Diagnostics. Dr. Rabinovici has received consulting fees or speaking honoraria from GE Healthcare, Axon Neurosciences, Merck, Eisai, Roche, and Genentech, and research funding from Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly and Company, GE Healthcare, and Life Molecular Imaging. Dr. Kramer receives royalties from Pearson Education. The remaining authors have no disclosures to report.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (J.H.K., grant numbers R01AG032289, R01AG048234), (A.M.S., grant number K23AG061253); the Larry L. Hillblom Network (J.H.K., grant numbers 2014-A-004-NET, 2018-A-025-FEL); and the Fordham University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.