VAUMeLF
Auditory Attention and Work Memory Assessment Batteries for Children
G. Bilancia e B. Bertelli
Child Neuropsychiatry and Psychology Unit, Health Care Centre of Reggio Emilia
General overview
On the basis of the demonstration of how crucial it is in the early phases of acquisition of language skills (especially of a lexical type), neuropsychology has recently focused on auditory attention, the role of which is integrated with that played by the processes of short-term management of verbal information (working memory). Within this strand, the following have been developed:
- the Battery for Auditory Attention Assessment (AU), with tests that analyse separately the different process components of auditory attention, favouring the analysis of sustained attention, selective attention and the process of shifting;
- the Battery for Phonological Working Memory Assessment (MeLF), which is designed to specifically assess the functioning of the phonological loop, implicated in the elaboration of verbal material and comprising two sub-components: the phonological store and the articulatory reiteration process.
The tests, collected on CD-Roms (one for the AU and two for the MeLF), are presented in auditory-verbal modality, and generally preceded by a pre-test which serves to familiarise the candidate with the type of task proposed.
The AU battery
This is made up of 5 tests:
- one for the assessment of sustained attention (ACPT), which is an adaptation to the auditory-verbal modality of the classic continuous performance task, and consists of a list of 100 words including a target to be identified featured twenty times and nineteen repeated distractors;
- two for selective attention (TS1, TS2), with different cognitive engagement, which consist in proposing for a restricted time lists of words in which targets are to be identified, with the simultaneous presentation through the non-dominant auditory channel of contending information. In both tests the three distracting conditions have a progressively greater impact: one of low interference (melody), one of medium interference (part of a TV news bulletin) and one of high interference (narration of a story);
- two for shifting (SH1, SH2), which implicate the identification of a dual target combining sound stimuli of various kinds (words, animal sounds and musical motifs) at different levels of complexity.
The MeLF battery
This battery is made up of 4 tests:
- non-word repetition (RipNP), which consists in the repetition of 40 non-words that are different in terms of length, phonological complexity and wordlikeness;
- digit span (MC), represents the classic task of repeating sequences of numbers of increasing length in the same order in which they are heard;
- comparison of series of non-words (CSNP), which consists in comparing pairs of series of non-words presented in blocks of increasing length;
- non-word recall (RicNP), proposing a task of immediate recall of non-words presented in 5 successive lists of increasing length.
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