Nonverbal Abstract Reasoning Research Articles

Is cognition integral to psychopathology? A population-based cohort study.

Lower cognitive functioning has been documented across psychiatric disorders and hypothesized to be a core deficit of mental disorders. Situating psychopathology and cognition as part of a unitary construct is therefore important to understanding the etiology of psychiatric disorders. The current study aims to test competing structural models of psychopathology and cognition in a large national cohort of adolescents. The analytic sample consisted of 1189 participants aged 16-17 years, screened by the Israeli Draft Board. Psychopathology was assessed using a modified version of the Brief Symptom Inventory, and cognition was assessed based on four standardized test scores ((1) mathematical reasoning, concentration, and concept manipulation; (2) visual-spatial problem-solving skills and nonverbal abstract reasoning; (3) verbal understanding; (4) categorization and verbal abstraction). Confirmatory factor analysis was implemented to compare competing structural models of psychopathology with and without cognition. Sensitivity analyses examined the models in different subpopulations. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated a better model fit of psychopathological symptoms without cognition (RMSEA = 0.037; TLI = 0.991; CFI = 0.992) than with cognition (RMSEA = 0.04-0.042; TLI = 0.987-0.988; CFI = 0.988-0.989). Sensitivity analyses supported the robustness of these results with a single exception. Among participants with low cognitive abilities (N = 139), models that integrated psychopathological symptoms with cognition had a better fit compared to models of psychopathology without cognition. The current study suggests that cognition and psychopathology are, generally, independent constructs. However, within low cognitive abilities, cognition was integral to the structure of psychopathology. Our results point toward an increased vulnerability to psychopathology in individuals with low cognitive abilities and may provide valuable information for clinicians.

A-100 Neuropsychological Findings in a Case Involving a Rare Genetic Anomaly (de novo 6q24.2-q25.2 deletion on paternal chromosome 6) Associated with Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR), Autism, OCD and Schizoaffective Disorder

Abstract Objective Individuals with deletions of the long arm of chromosome 6 have been known since 1975 with just over 100 cases reported as of 2015. Individuals with deletions involving band 6q25 have a high incidence of intrauterine growth retardation, intellectual disability, dysmorphic features, growth failure, and medical complications (Stagi et al, 2015). Findings will add to the literature base on this genetic anomaly. Methods A 21-year-old male was assessed to differentiate between obsessive vs. psychotic thinking. His history was notable for being born weighing 2300 grams at term, and having feeding, learning and social/emotional difficulties which progressed to OCD in later childhood. At age 15, he was determined to have a de novo 3.7 Mb microdeletion at 6q24.3. Results Neuropsychological assessment of attention, motor and executive functions reveal a variable profile with pockets of strengths relative to his own performance as well as significant normative impairment. Findings represented a significant decline from prior testing at age 10. His verbal memory was below average and his overall attention capacity was impaired. JT’s executive functioning, visual-motor integration, motor speed, and his verbal abstract reasoning were all below average. His non-verbal abstract reasoning and visual perception were intact. On results of objective, projective and neurocognitive testing, JT met criteria for diagnoses of Autism, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Schizoaffective Disorder. Conclusions JT’s developmental history and symptom presentation are complex, revealing significant comorbidity; this case study describes the progression of JT’s difficulties over his lifespan, beginning with feeding difficulties, diagnoses of autism and OCD and progressing to a psychotic disorder.

C-28 Raven’s Progressive Matrices: Validation of a Short Form

Abstract Objective The Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM) is a 60-item measure of non-verbal abstract reasoning. The length of the RSPM presents a potential barrier to its use. Consequently, Bilker et al. (2012) identified a 9-item short form (RSPM-SF). The purpose of this study is to (a) provide descriptive statistics for the RSPM-SF from a non-patient sample, and (b) validate the RSPM-SF by exploring correlations with congruent and divergent cognitive measures. Method Twenty men and 23 women, aged 55 to 83 (M = 67.79), completed a test battery that included the SPM-SF and global, memory, verbal, and executive measures. Results The mean score for the RSPM-SF was 4.40 (median = 4, mode = 4, SD = 1.92). RSPM-SF correlated best with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (r = .548, CI: .297 to .729) and poorest with letter fluency (r = .065, CI: -.456 to .127). Correlations with executive measures ranged from a low of .308 (Tower Test; CI: .019 to .549) to a high of .470 (Trail Making Test Part-B; CI: .197 to .675). The average correlation with executive scores was .412. Average correlation with learning (both verbal and non-verbal) was .435, and with recall was .296. Conclusions RSPM historically was viewed as a non-verbal global estimate of cognitive ability. Present findings support using the RSPM-SF as a global measure, as it correlated well with both verbal and nonverbal, and executive and memory tests. Descriptive data suggested that the RSPM-SF items ranged from easy to difficult.

Neuropsychological differentiation between Alzheimer's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies in a memory clinic

The aim of this study was to identify a useful neuropsychological instrument for making a differential clinical diagnosis between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). We examined 402 AD and 38 DLB patients with neuropsychological tests that covered general cognition, frontal lobe cognitive function, non-verbal abstract reasoning, working memory and attention, and verbal memory. Discriminant analysis using a stepwise method was performed to identify the measures best able to discriminate between AD and DLB. The AD patients performed significantly worse than the DLB patients on orientation to time, delayed recall subtests on the Mini-Mental State Examination, and logical memory subtests 1 and 2 of the Revised Wechsler Memory Scale. The DLB patients performed significantly worse than the AD patients on the attention, repetition, and pentagon copying subtests of the Mini-Mental State Examination, the constructional praxis subtests of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive component-Japanese version, the Frontal Assessment Battery total score, Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM) sets A, AB, and B, and backward digit span. Discriminant analyses between AD and DLB established the key variables as Logical Memory 1, Logical Memory 2, backward digit span, RCPM, and delayed recall on the Mini-Mental State Examination. We inferred the AD-DLB discriminant index from the following discriminant analyses: AD-DLB discriminant index = (Backward digit span score + RCPM set B score) - (Logical Memory 1 score + Logical Memory 2 score), which offered a highly favourable value for diagnostic utility. The AD-DLB discriminant index, consisting of backward digit span, RCPM set B, and logical memory 1 and 2, is useful to differentiate between AD and DLB.

Hemispheric contributions to nonverbal abstract reasoning and problem solving.

Hemispheric involvement in reasoning abilities has been debated for some time, and it remains unclear whether the right hemisphere's involvement in problem solving is modality specific or dependent on the type of spatial reasoning required. In the current study, 2 types of nonverbal reasoning abilities were examined, spatial reasoning and proportional reasoning, in 109 patients with cerebrovascular disease that was confined to either the right or the left hemisphere or was diffuse in nature. Results indicated that no lateralizing effects were present based on type of spatial reasoning. Findings are consistent with the suggestion that higher order cognitive processes involved in nonverbal abstraction and problem solving are not strongly lateralized to the right hemisphere but rather are more generally distributed throughout the cortex.

A population-based cohort study of premorbid intellectual, language, and behavioral functioning in patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and nonpsychotic bipolar disorder.

The premorbid intellectual, language, and behavioral functioning of patients hospitalized for schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or nonpsychotic bipolar disorder was compared with that of healthy comparison subjects. The Israeli Draft Board Registry, which contains measures of intellectual, language, and behavioral functioning for the unselected population of 16- to 17-year-olds, was merged with the National Psychiatric Hospitalization Case Registry, which contains diagnoses for all patients with psychiatric hospitalizations in Israel. The database was used to identify adolescents with no evidence of illness at their draft board assessment who were later hospitalized for nonpsychotic bipolar disorder (N=68), schizoaffective disorder (N=31), or schizophrenia (N=536). The premorbid functioning of these subjects was compared to that of nonhospitalized individuals matched for age, gender, and school attended at the time of the draft board assessment. The diagnostic groups of hospitalized subjects were also compared. Relative to the comparison subjects, subjects with schizophrenia showed significant premorbid deficits on all intellectual and behavioral measures and on measures of reading and reading comprehension. Subjects with schizophrenia performed significantly worse on these measures than those with a nonpsychotic bipolar disorder, who did not differ significantly from the comparison subjects on any measure. Subjects with schizoaffective disorder performed significantly worse than the comparison subjects only on the measure of nonverbal abstract reasoning and visual-spatial problem solving and performed significantly worse than subjects with nonpsychotic bipolar disorder on three of the four intellectual measures and on the reading and reading comprehension tests. The results support a nosologic distinction between nonpsychotic bipolar disease and schizophrenia in hospitalized patients.