Home-versus acquired-language test performance on the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised among multilingual South Africans

Abstract

The Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R) has been adapted for use in many different languages and in low- and middle-income countries. However, few adaptations have evaluated performance differences between home- and acquired-language administrations. The present study examined performance on an adapted HVLT-R between multilingual South Africans who chose to be tested in a home or acquired language. The HVLT-R was administered to 112 multilingual, isiXhosa as home language, Black South African adults (49% men) with no major medical, neurological, or psychiatric problems. Sixty-one preferred to take the test in isiXhosa and 51 preferred English. We examined between-language differences in word equivalency, primary scores, learning indices, and serial position effects. We also examined language, age, education, and gender on test performance. English-examinees were significantly younger and more educated than isiXhosa-examinees (p’s < .05). Although isiXhosa words had more letters and syllables than English words (p’s <.001), there were no significant differences between groups on HVLT-R performance or serial recall (p’s > .05). More education and being a woman predicted better Total and Delayed Recall (p’s<.05). Performance on this modified HVLT-R appears similar between English and isiXhosa administrations among South African isiXhosa first language speakers, which makes comparisons between preferred language administrations appropriate.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive testing
• cross-cultural
• multilingual
• South Africa
• verbal list-learning

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the hard work of our research staff: Michelle Henry, Veronica Jonah, Thandeka Mbonambi, and Tandiwe Mngxuma, and study participants. We would like to thank the City of Cape Town Department of Health for their support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development under Grant R21-HD084197; the National Institute of Nursing Research under Grant R21-NR015009; National Institute of Mental Health under Grant R01-MH09557; the National Institute of Mental Health to the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at NY State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University under Grant P30-MH43520; and the Columbia University Global Mental Health Scholars Program.