Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To generate normative data on the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCF) across 11 countries in Latin America, with country-specific adjustments for gender, age, and education, where appropriate.
METHOD:
The sample consisted of 3,977 healthy adults who were recruited from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and, Puerto Rico. Each subject was administered the ROCF as part of a larger neuropsychological battery. A standardized five-step statistical procedure was used to generate the norms.
RESULTS:
The final multiple linear regression models explained 7–34% of the variance in ROCF copy scores and 21–41% of the variance in immediate recall scores. Although t-tests showed significant differences between men and women on ROCF copy and immediate recall scores, none of the countries had an effect size larger than 0.3. As a result, gender-adjusted norms were not generated.
CONCLUSIONS:
The present study is the first to create norms for the ROCF in Latin America. As a result, this study will have important implications for the formation and practice of neuropsychology in this region.
Keywords
Introduction
The Complex Figure Test was created to assess visual perception, visual-spatial constructional ability, and visual memory and was developed by Swiss psychologist Andre Rey in 1941 (Rey, 1941). In 1944, Paul-Alexandre Osterrieth developed a scoring system to standardize Rey’s administration method and provided initial normative data on 230 children (ages 4– 15) and 60 adults (16– 60; Osterrieth, 1944, Meyers & Meyers, 1995; Strauss, Sherman, & Spreen, 2006). He proposed to subcategorize the figure into 18 elements and score them based on their presence, completeness, and correct placement.
Subsequently, the test has been referred to as the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCF) and is one of the most widely used neuropsychological tests for both clinical and research settings to examine visual spatial constructional ability and nonverbal memory skills (Somervile, Tremont, & Stern, 2000). It also has been theorized or shown to measure various cognitive dimensions, including problem and planning solving strategies (Lezak, Howieson, & Loring, 2004; Meyers & Meyers, 1995; Mitrushina, Boone, Razani, & D’Elia, 2005), attention and concentration levels, fine-motor coordination, and organizational skills (Helmes, 2000). In its recall conditions, it also aids the investigator to measure visual-spatial memory within declarative memory, which is connected to the hippocampus and related regions in the right temporal lobe (Lezak, 1995; Goder et al., 2004; Milner, 1975).
The ROCF is made up of a complex series of rectangles, lines, circles, triangles, and other geometric components (Rey, 1941). Participants are supplied with a sheet of paper and a pencil. Copying the ROCF by hand is a challenging task involving cognitively organizing the figure into a meaningful perceptual unit in order to reproduce it. Then, the participant must reproduce it again from memory three minutes later, although some authors have used a 30-minute delay (Peña-Casanova et al., 2009). Outcome measures include an
copy score (which reflects the accuracy of the original copy and is a measure of visual-spatial constructional ability), time required to copy the figure, and immediate recall score (Peña-Casanova et al., 2009). The figure is distributed into 18 scored elements. Between 0 and 2 points are given for each element depending on the accuracy, distortion, and location of its duplication; 36 is the maximum score.
The ROCF has been used to examine impairments or cognitive processes in a plethora of neurological disorders (Machulda et al., 2007). Studies using the ROCF have revealed visual memory disturbance and recall deficits in individuals with schizophrenia (Calev, Edeist, Kugelmass, & Lerer, 1991; Knight, Sims-Knight, & Petchers-Cassell, 1977; Silverstein, Osborn, & Palumbo, 1998). Similarly, individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Huntington’s disease (HD), and Korsakoff’s syndrome have shown poorer copy and recognition on the ROCF than controls (Shimamura, Salmon, Squire, & Butters, 1987; Tierney, Nores, Snow, Fisher, Zorzitto, & Reid, 1994). The ROCF has also been used in individuals with traumatic brain injury (Ashton, Donders, & Hoffman, 2005) and individuals with aneurysms of the anterior communicating artery (Diamon & DeLucas, 1996). Within the pediatric literature, the ROCF has been used to measure visuospatial perception, learning, and memory (Baron, 2000) in research with several populations including typically developing youth (Beebe, Ris, Brown, & Dietrich, 2004), and preterm children (Waber & McCormick, 1995), as well as children with phenylketonuria (Antshel & Waisbren, 2003), epilepsy (Hernandez et al., 2003), learning disabilities (Kirkwood, Weiler, Berstein, Forbes, & Waber, 2001), and ADHD (Sami, Carte, Hinshaw, & Zupan, 2003; Seidman et al.,1995).
A wide variety of studies have suggested demographic differences on the ROCF. Copy scores increase with age, with adult levels being reached at about age 17 (Meyers & Meyers, 1995). However, scores tend to decrease with advancing age, particularly after age 70 (Chervinsky, Mitrushina, & Satz, 1992; Rosselli & Ardila, 1991; Chiulli, Haaland, LaRue, & Garry, 1995). Some studies have shown men to score better than women, but overall gender differences are minor or nonexistent (Berry, Allen, & Schmitt, 1991; Boone, Lesser, Hill-Gutierrez, Berman, & D’Elia, 1993; Peña-Casanova et al., 2009), and scores are also positively associated with education level (Ardila, Rosselli, & Rosas, 1989; Berry et al., 1991; Caffarra, Vezzadini, Dieci, Zonato, & Venneri, 2002). Additionally, African Americans have been shown to have lowers scores than Caucasians and Asian Americans, especially in visuoconstruction. Moreover, those who spoke English as a native versus second language revealed significantly better ROCF copy. However, within the Hispanic group specifically, a comparison between those who spoke English as a first versus second language revealed superior performance by the latter group on ROCF copy (Boone, Victor, Wen, Razani, Ponton, 2007).
A series of limited studies have tried to establish norms for the ROCF in various populations. Palomo and colleagues (2013) provided normative data for the ROCF in a younger Spanish population from Andalusia, the Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia, Madrid, and Murcia. Normative data based on a sample of 624 Spanish-Speaking children and adults living in Bogota Colombia, are reported by Rosselli and Ardila (2003). Caffarra et al. (2002) collected normative data in a large Italian sample with a wide age range from 20 to 89 years. Vogel, Stokholm and Jorgensen (2012), found normative data for an elderly Danish sample on the ROCF test. Moreover, normative data for Canadian children and adults aged 6– 70 years old were found by Strauss et al. (2006). Finally, Fernando, Chard, Butcher, and McKay (2003) produced comprehensive New Zealand norms for children and adolescents, but not for adults.
Appropriate normative data are needed in order to assess memory correctly in other countries outside of the United Stated. Concerns have risen about the validity of using such norms when applied to other ethnic and cultural backgrounds (Knight et al., 1997; Lezak, 1995). To date, only limited normative data have been generated on the ROCF in Spanish or in Latin America, with samples limited to Colombia and Spain. Having different educational programs and cultural influences highlights the need for norms that are standardized for the Latin America population – hence the purpose of this study. Investigators need to be very careful when using neuropsychological tests with individuals from cultures different from the one that provided the normative sample. The interpretation of the performance of individuals from Latin America using norms from other countries and languages might result in significant errors in assessment. In light of this situation, when individuals from Latin America are being evaluated, it is important to do so with Latin American norms that take into consideration age, gender, and formal education.
Method
Participants
The sample consisted of 3,977 healthy individuals who were recruited from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and, Puerto Rico. The participants were selected according to the following criteria: a) were between 18 to 95 years of age, b) were born and currently lived in the country where the protocol was conducted, c) spoke Spanish as their native language, d) had completed at least one year of formal education, e) were able to read and write at the time of evaluation, f) scored ≥23 on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE, Folstein, Folstein, & McHugh, 1975), g) scored ≤4 on the Patient Health Questionnaire– 9 (PHQ-9, Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001), and h) scored ≥90 on the Barthel Index (Mahoney & Barthel, 1965).
Participants with self-reported neurologic or psychiatric disorders were excluded due to a potential effect on cognitive performance. Participants were volunteers from the community and signed an informed consent. Nine participants were excluded from the analyses, with a final sample of 3,968 participants. Socio-demographic and participant characteristics for each of the countries’ samples have been reported elsewhere (Guàrdia-Olmos, Peró-Cebollero, Rivera, & Arango-Lasprilla, 2015). The multi-center study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the coordinating site, the University of Deusto, Spain.
Instrument administration
The examiner administered the ROCF Figure A (copy), and after 3 minutes, the immediate recall. The Spanish-language ROCF manual scoring guidelines were followed (Rey, 2009). The ROCF includes 18 elements, and the maximum score for each of the two tasks (copy and immediate recall) is 36. Two points are given when the element is correctly reproduced, 1 point when the reproduction is distorted, incomplete but placed properly, or complete but placed poorly; 0.5 point is credited when the element is distorted or incomplete and placed poorly. A 0 score is given when the element is absent or is not recognizable (Osterrieth, 1944).
Statistical analyses
The detailed statistical analyses used to generate the normative data for this test are described in Guàrdia-Olmos, et al., 2015. In summary, the data manipulation process for each country-specific dataset involved five steps: a)
Results
ROCF copy
Regarding the effect of gender on the ROCF copy scores, the
The final eleven ROCF copy multivariate linear regression models for each country are shown in Table 2. In all countries, the ROCF copy score increased for those with more than 12 years of education (see Table 2) and, in all countries, ROCF copy scores decreased in a linear fashion as a function of age. The amount of variance explained in ROCF copy scores ranged from 7% (in Argentina) to 34% (in Paraguay).
ROCF immediate recall
Regarding the effect of gender on the ROCF immediate recall scores, the
The final eleven ROCF immediate recall multivariate linear regression models for each country are shown in Table 4. In all countries, ROCF immediate recall score increased for those with more than 12 years of education (see Table 4) and decreased in a linear fashion as a function of age. The amount of variance explained in ROCF immediate recall scores ranged from 21% (in Guatemala) to 41% (in El Salvador).
Normative procedure
Norms (e.g., a percentile score) for the ROCF copy and immediate recall scores were established using the five-step procedure described above. To facilitate the understanding of the procedure to obtain the percentile associated with a score on this test, an example will be given. Suppose you need to find the percentile score for a Chilean woman, who is 43 years old and has 14 years of education. She has a score of 30 on the ROCF copy test. The steps to obtain the percentile for this score are: a) Check Table 1 to determine if the effect size of gender in the country of interest (Chile) on this test and time point (ROCF copy) is greater than 0.3 by country. The column labelled
User-friendly normative data tables
The five-step normative procedures explained above can provide more individualized norms. However, this method can be prone to human error due to the number of required computations. To enhance user-friendliness, the authors have completed these steps for a range of raw scores based on small age range groupings (see Guàrdia-Olmos et al., 2015) and created tables that clinicians can more easily use to obtain a percentile range associated with a given raw score on this test. These tables are available by country and type of test (ROCF copy vs. ROCF immediate recall) in the Appendix. In order to obtain an approximate percentile for the above example (converting a raw score of 30 for a Chilean woman who is 43 years old and has 14 years of education) using the simplified normative tables provided, the following steps are recommended. (1) First, identify the appropriate table ensuring the specific country and test. In this case, the table for the ROCF copy scores for Chile can be found in Table A3. (2) Note if the title of the table indicates that it is only to be used for one specific gender. In this case, gender is not specified. Thus Table A3 is used for both males and females. (3) Next, the table is divided based on educational level (1 to 12 vs. more than 12 years of education). Since this woman has 14 years of education, she falls into the >12 years of education category. These data can be found in the top section of the table. (4) Determine the age range most appropriate for the individual. In this case, 43 falls into the column 43– 47 years of age. (5) Read down the age range column to find the approximate location of the raw score the person obtained on the test. Reading down the 43– 47 column, the score of 30 obtained by this Chilean woman corresponds to an approximate percentile of 40.
The percentile obtained via this user-friendly table method (40th) is slightly different than the more exact one (38th) obtained following the individual conversion steps above because the table method is based on an age range (e.g., individuals aged 43– 47) instead of the exact age (individuals aged 43). If the exact score is not listed in the column, you must estimate the percentile value from the listed raw scores.
Discussion
The purpose of the current study was to generate normative data on the ROCF across 11 countries in Latin America, with country-specific adjustments for gender, age, and education, where appropriate. The final multiple linear regression models explained between 7.4– 34% of the variance in the ROCF copy scores and between 21– 40% in immediate recall scores.
Although men outperformed women on the ROCF copy in four of the 11 countries, the effect sizes were all small, and therefore gender-adjusted norms were not generated. For the ROCF immediate recall, men outperformed women in seven countries, with only the difference in Honduras reaching a medium-sized effect. As a result, gender-adjusted norms were only generated for Honduras on the immediate recall. These findings are generally consistent with the previous literature, where some studies have shown men to outperform women on the ROCF, although these effects have been inconsistent or small when present (Berry et al., 1991; Boone et al., 1993; Peña-Casanova et al., 2009). In light of the previous literature, the current results suggest that gender should not be taken into account in calculating participants’ percentiles for the ROCF in the vast majority of countries in Latin America when using the current norms, with the exception of Honduras on the ROCF immediate recall.
The ROCF copy and immediate recall scores both increased linearly as a function of education in all countries. These findings were extremely consistent within the current study, as well as with previous studies on the ROCF (Ardila, Rosselli, & Rosas, 1989; Berry et al., 1991; Caffarra et al., 2002). Because of potentially substantial differences in the quality of education across different countries in Latin America, it is extremely important to use the specific education-adjusted norms generated for a single country when administering the ROCF to individuals from that country.
Age was inversely associated with ROCF copy scores in all countries except Guatemala, and age was also inversely associated with immediate recall scores in all countries. As a result, age-adjusted norms were calculated for all countries except for Guatemala on the ROCF copy. The current findings are in line with the previous literature which has shown that ROCF scores tend to decrease with advancing age, especially in individuals who are above age 70 (Chervinsky et al., 1992; Rosselli & Ardila, 1991; Chiulli et al., 1995). As with education, it is important that neuropsychologists in Latin America use the current age-adjusted norms for their specific country, with the exception of Guatemala on the copy only.
Limitations and future directions
The current study has several limitations, and as a result directions for future research. First, although the study was conducted in 11 countries, caution should be exercised in generalizing the norms of the ROCF from this study to other countries in Latin America where data were not collected. Future studies should establish norms for the ROCF in countries like Ecuador, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Panama, among others. However, the ROCF norms from the current study may be more accurate in these countries than the norms from Spain or English-speaking countries with different cultures which are likely currently being used, although this assertion direly needs support from futureresearch.
Second, several sampling limitations are notable. It is important to emphasize that although participants were included with fewer than 12 years of education, illiterate individuals were excluded from the current study, so the ROCF norms cannot generalize to this population. Future studies should norm the ROCF in individuals who are unable to read and write. Similarly, no participants in the current study had neurological conditions, and all participants were adults; future similar studies should be conducted in populations of various neurological conditions, as well as among pediatric populations. Future research should also collect data on participants’ bilingualism, which was not controlled for in the current study. Participants only had to have Spanish as their primary language, and performance on the ROCF could be different if people speak other languages such as English, or local dialects such as Quechua or Guaraní. Future research should explore the possible influence of bilingualism on ROCF performance. A final sampling limitation is that the data were generally collected in specific regions of the countries in the current study, as opposed to nationally in those countries. Although the current study was the largest neuropsychological normative study in the history of Latin America, it should be seen as a first step in conducting more rigorous and larger studies with nationally representative samples.
Third, although the ROCF is a one of the most common neuropsychological instruments used in Latin America, many other instruments are also common in Latin America that should be normed in the same manner. Despite its commonness, the ROCF was created in a Western culture that may be different from those in Latin America. There is a great need for future research to develop more culturally sensitive tests that are bound in local cultures, not just translate and norm those that were developed in other countries and cultures. Future research should examine the psychometric properties of common neuropsychological instruments in Latin America, as well as test whether the instruments have strong ecological validity, and if not, develop instruments in those cultures that are more ecologically valid.
Despite these limitations and although previous studies have produced Spanish-language norms for the ROCF in Spain (Palomo et al., 2013) and Colombia (Rosselli & Ardila, 2003), this study was the first to generate ROCF norms across 11 countries in Latin America with nearly 4,000 participants. This study was the largest and most comprehensive ROCF normative study conducted to date in any global region, and as a result, its norms have the potential to affect the standard of neuropsychological assessment with the ROCF in Latin America unlike any study before it.
Appendix
Normative data for the ROCF copy stratified by age and education levels for ARGENTINA
Normative data for the ROCF copy stratified by age and education levels for BOLIVIA
Normative data for the ROCF copy stratified by age and education levels for CHILE
Normative data for the ROCF copy stratified by age and education levels for CUBA
Normative data for the ROCF copy stratified by age and education levels for EL SALVADOR
Normative data for the ROCF copy stratified by age and education levels for GUATEMALA
Normative data for the ROCF copy stratified by age and education levels for HONDURAS
Normative data for the ROCF copy stratified by age and education levels for MEXICO
Normative data for the ROCF copy stratified by age and education levels for PARAGUAY
Normative data for the ROCF copy stratified by age and education levels for PERU
Normative data for the ROCF copy stratified by age and education levels for PUERTO RICO
Normative data for the ROCF immediate recall stratified by age and education levels for ARGENTINA
Normative data for the ROCF immediate recall stratified by age and education levels for BOLIVIA
Normative data for the ROCF immediate recall stratified by age and education levels for CHILE
Normative data for the ROCF immediate recall stratified by age and education levels for CUBA
Normative data for the ROCF immediate recall stratified by age and education levels for EL SALVADOR
Normative data for the ROCF immediate recall stratified by age and education levels for GUATEMALA
Normative data for the ROCF immediate recall stratified by age and education levels and gender for HONDURAS: MALES only
Normative data for the ROCF immediate recall stratified by age education level, and gender for HONDURAS: FEMALES only
Normative data for the ROCF immediate recall stratified by age and education levels for MEXICO
Normative data for the ROCF immediate recall stratified by age and education levels for PARAGUAY
Normative data for the ROCF immediate recall stratified by age and education levels for PERU
Normative data for the ROCF immediate recall stratified by age and education levels for PUERTO RICO
