Hochegger, Saskia (2023) The Face-Name Associative Memory Exam (FNAME) as an early indicator of cognitive decline. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Associative memory (AM) is one of the first cognitive domains to be impaired in Alzheimer’s disease, thus, there is an increasing need to develop sensitive tools that can detect those early, subtle impairments. Further, AM is not only an issue in AD, but also declines significantly in healthy aging. The Face-Name-Associative-Memory-Exam (FNAME) is a test of associative memory that has shown promising results in detecting impairments in AM in both, healthy older adults and older adults with aMCI or subjective cognitive decline (SCD). The aim of the current research was to assess which subscales of the FNAME were most sensitive to aMCI, and how age and cognitive reserve (CR) affect FNAME scores in such clinical populations, to get a more comprehensive and realistic picture of FNAME performance in a clinical environment. Methods: 206 participants were recruited from the ongoing Cogmax study and divided into an SCD and an aMCI group. A Dutch, extended version of the FNAME was administered to all participants. CR was assessed by the level of education, corresponding to the Dutch education system. Results: In a linear regression model, spontaneous name recall was most sensitive to group membership (β=-.185, t (203) =-6.045, p<.001), whereas face-name matching was most sensitive to aging (β=-2.592, t (203) =-6.965, p<.001). Age was a significant predictor for each subscale, even when accounting for group membership. The least sensitive subscales to both, group membership and age, were face and name recognition. CR was only significant at .05 level for some subscales, but not all, with very low effect sizes. Discussion: Age and group membership differentially affect the FNAME subscales. The small effect sizes for name and especially face recognition implicate that item recognition is not much affected by age or aMCI, however a subsequent suggestion is the use of face recognition as a performance validity test (PVT) and to develop a sensitive cut-off score. The small and often non-significant effects of CR indicate that the FNAME is a promising screening tool for early cognitive impairments, which is less prone to the effects of higher education than other tests of memory functioning (e.g., CVLT). It is recommended to use the FNAME only in combination with age-norms and to observe the overall pattern of performance, instead of a single score, and to pay special attention to impaired recognition abilities. Keywords: FNAME, associative memory, Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, ageing, cognitive reserve
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Supervisor name: | Enriquez Geppert, S. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Clinical Neuropsychology (CN) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Nov 2023 10:08 |
| Last Modified: | 10 Nov 2023 10:08 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/2928 |
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