T-DAV: Action naming test with videos. Development, validation and standardization

Abstract

Word finding difficulties, particularly for verbs, are a common symptom in post-stroke aphasia and people with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Word finding difficulties for verbs are mainly assessed by action naming tasks, using often images depicting actions. However, videos seem to be more adapted than images for action naming. To date, there are no action naming tests using videos available in French. The aim of this study is to present the T-DAV, an action naming test with videos, and its psychometric properties (validity and reliability). The T-DAV is composed of 20 videos (10 high frequency and 10 low frequency actions). High and low frequency stimuli are matched for several relevant psycholinguistic variables (e.g., length in phonemes). Performance on the T-DAV is associated with performance on the DVL-38 test, a French action naming test using images (concurrent validity). The T-DAV allows to differentiate the performance of healthy individuals from that of Alzheimer’s Disease patients (discriminant validity). The items of the T-DAV show good internal consistency (reliability). In sum, the T-DAV shows good pshychometric properties and counts with norms for French-speaking adults. The T-DAV fulfills a clinical need of action naming tests with videos in French.