NORMATIVE DATA ON THE BOSTON NAMING TEST FOR ELDERLY ADULTS IN A DEMOGRAPHICALLY DIVERSE MEDICAL SAMPLE

Boston Naming Test normative data for 123 elderly adults are provided for use in urban, demographically diverse, medical settings. Study 1 examined the association between demographic variables and confrontation naming performance. Age, education, ethnicity, and gender were all found to be significant predictors of Boston Naming Test performance. The combined effects of demographic variables accounted for 21% of Boston Naming Test variance beyond that explained by general cognitive abilities. The Boston Naming Test scores obtained from this sample were much lower than those reported in previous samples (e.g., Van Gorp, Satz, Kiersch, & Henry, 1986), with much greater variance. Study 2 examined the utility of the BNT to differentiate the present normative sample from an additional sample of cognitively impaired persons. Despite substantial demographic and health status differences between the present normative sample and previous samples, the BNT discriminated cognitively intact persons from cognitively impaired persons with an overall accuracy of 72.75%. The normative data from the present study are interpreted as more appropriate for use in urban medical settings than those data obtained from samples of highly educated, optimally healthy adults.