Abstract
Pictures are a popular tool for cognitive testing, memory training and speech therapy. However, a picture bearing more designates can result in controversial interpretations.
The correct naming of the picture depends on linguistic characteristics of languages (e. g., frequency and length of words), its proper drawing, the age, the diagnosis of a person and other factors. Therefore we decided to list names of pictures, draw them and finally select those which have high level of name agreement in healthy seniors.
The pictures may be rated according to naming quality by patients with Alzheimer disease. Thus another goal was to rank them according to graded naming difficulties entailed for these patients.
Subjects and methods: Different cohorts of the healthy elderly repeatedly named two-dimensional line drawings from 10 categories: animals, tools, clothes, fruits, vegetables, body parts, plants, means of transport, food, musical instruments. The pictures were consecutively redrawn, included or eliminated in eight separate sets.
The final quality screening of 70 pictures from the seventh set was carried out in 76 healthy seniors (age 78 +- 7 years) and 57 patients with Alzheimer's disease (age 81 +- 5 years, MMSE 22 +- 5 points). Results: The final set comprises 66 pictures in various semantic categories and with name agreement more than 90%.
The graded naming difficulties of the pictures were assessed by the difference in the naming agreement between the healthy elderly and patients with Alzheimer disease and pictures were divided into three groups: difficult (n = 13), moderate (n = 14) and easy (n = 40). AD patients had the greatest difficulties to name drawings showing hippopotamus, pretzel and walrus.
Conclusion: The whole final set contains the pictures with different degrees of difficulties. Each has its own semantic category and is named by one Czech word with high level of name agreement.
They are ready to use for multiple purposes.