Item analysis of the Spanish version of the Boston Naming Test with a Spanish speaking adult population from Colombia

Stella H. Kim, Adriana M. Strutt, Laiene Olabarrieta-Landa, Anthony H. Lequerica, Diego Rivera, Carlos Jose De Los Reyes Aragon, Oscar Utria, Juan Carlos Arango-Lasprilla

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective: The Boston Naming Test (BNT) is a widely used measure of confrontation naming ability that has been criticized for its questionable construct validity for non-English speakers. This study investigated item difficulty and construct validity of the Spanish version of the BNT to assess cultural and linguistic impact on performance. Methods: Subjects were 1298 healthy Spanish speaking adults from Colombia. They were administered the 60- and 15-item Spanish version of the BNT. A Rasch analysis was computed to assess dimensionality, item hierarchy, targeting, reliability, and item fit. Results: Both versions of the BNT satisfied requirements for unidimensionality. Although internal consistency was excellent for the 60-item BNT, order of difficulty did not increase consistently with item number and there were a number of items that did not fit the Rasch model. For the 15-item BNT, a total of 5 items changed position on the item hierarchy with 7 poor fitting items. Internal consistency was acceptable. Conclusions: Construct validity of the BNT remains a concern when it is administered to non-English speaking populations. Similar to previous findings, the order of item presentation did not correspond with increasing item difficulty, and both versions were inadequate at assessing high naming ability.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)29-45
Number of pages17
JournalClinical Neuropsychologist
Volume32
Issue numbersup1
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 30 2018

Keywords

  • Boston Naming Test
  • construct validity
  • language
  • naming
  • Spanish

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Clinical Psychology
  • Psychiatry and Mental health

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Item analysis of the Spanish version of the Boston Naming Test with a Spanish speaking adult population from Colombia'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this