Multilingualism In Neuropsychology
A particular challenge for the Israeli neuropsychologist is the vast number of native languages of Israelis. On this page, you may post information and references for assessment techniques in languages other than English.
Please e-mail your postings to the operator at the below address.
The Hebrew-language version of Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination was published in the July 2005 issue of the Israel Medical Association Journal. The copyright owner has agreed to make the test freely available. A PDF file of the Hebrew ACE is available for downloading from this site: ACE-Hebrew Posted 20.9.2006
I am posting in four installments for your browsing enjoyment the results of PsycScan searches for all journal articles from 1995 to the present which contain the keywords 'Hebrew language.' Many are relevant to neuropsychological research. Each file contains 100 articles. However, you cannot access the actual abstracts via these links unless you are an APA member and log onto PsycScan. Posted 29.5.98
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See the article "Instrument for locating students with suspected learning disabilites: a quantitative approach" by R Engel of Tel Hai College in International Journal of Rehabilitation Research, 1997 Jun; 20(2), 169-81. This is a potentially useful Hebrew-language test. Posted 18.5.98
Prof. Zohar Eviatar has published several noteworthy articles on the neuropsychology of the Hebrew language, including "Reading direction and attention: effects on lateralized ignoring" (Brain Cogn, Nov 1996, 29(2), 137-150) and "Language experience and right-hemisphere tasks: the effects of scanning habits and multilingualism" (Brain Lang, June 1, 1997, 58(1), 157-73). Posted 17.5.98.
An article in the February 1998 issue of The Clinical Neuropsychologist condemns across the board any neuropsychological assessment of patients in whose native language one is not thoroughly fluent, as well as the use of anyone other than a professional translator to assist in evaluations. The article deals primarily with American NPs testing Spanish-speakers in forensic settings, and contains horror stories of grossly defective judgment on the part of the NP. One could argue with the absolutist postion taken by the author, and I suspect many of us in Israel have had to resort to these practices in evaluating elderly patients and have developed ways to cope with the language problem. After all, how many Serbo-Croatian or Moghrabi-speaking NPs are there in Israel? But the article is worth reading for its cautionary tales. Posted 14.4.98
A study by Naveh-Benjamin, et al. on the relationship between reading time and memory span in English, Spanish, Hebrew & Arabic may be found in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1986, Vol 38A, pp 739-751. Submitted 30.3.98
Norms for a Hebrew version of the Stroop Color-Word Test may be found in Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1988, Vol. 67, pp 187-192. Submitted 30.3.98
New norms for the Hebrew version of the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test were published in the November 1997 edition of The Clinical Neuropsychologist. Submitted 29.11.97
Qualified users may obtain copies of the Stroop Color-Word Test in most European languages from Dr.
Yehoshua Ne'eman, Department of Neurology, Hadassah-University Hospital, Jerusalem 91200. Submitted 24.11.97
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Email: jpnewman@hadassah.org.il
