Today, it is widely accepted that patients with schizophrenia have poorer performance across all known neuropsychological tests and domains compared to healthy individuals (Schaefer et al., 2013). During the last decades, a great number of publications have shed light on the nature and importance of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia, using the latest advances in science. Consequently, he named the disorder “dementia praecox”. Emil Kraepelin, one of the most famous psychiatrists of all time, focused on the cognitive decline as a core symptom of schizophrenia. Cognitive deficits are very commonly observed in psychiatric disorders. Key wordsĪuditory processing disorder, cognition, hearing, memory, measurement instruments in psychiatric care Abbreviations:ĪPD: Auditory Processing Disorder dB: decibels HL: Hearing Level IQ: Intelligence CoefficientSL: Sensation Level IntroductionĬognition’s complex interplay with hearing as well as with mental disorders is well established. The paradigm of the present study is that of psychiatric disorders but there is no reason why this is not valid for any population. The effect (F=5.047, p=.036) was present when evaluating the backwards digit span score.Ĭonclusions: Adapting digit span test implementation intensity will provide short-term and working memory results that are more accurate and avoid over-diagnosis of cognitive deficits. Results: There was a documented improvement of short-term memory results due to adapting intensity of the digit span test according to each ear’s specific hearing sensitivity as measured by pure tone audiometry. Repeated measures ANOVA was implemented to test for differences between the two conditions (i & iii). Study Sample: Twenty-two psychiatric inpatients were evaluated for short-term and working memory.ĭata collection and Analysis: The testing performed included (i) digit span evaluation at an intensity of 50dB HL, (ii) pure tone audiometry for hearing sensitivity evaluation and (iii) digit span evaluation at an intensity of 50dB SL (corrected based on the exact ear specific hearing sensitivity). Purpose: How important is this impact in clinical evaluation of short-term and working memory using the digit span test? The target group used is that of psychiatric patients as this patient population has both commonly observed cognitive deficits and undocumented hearing loss and auditory processing deficits. hearing loss or auditory processing disorder). Background: Accuracy of measured auditory memory may be negatively impacted by non-proper functioning of the auditory system (i.e.
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