TY - JOUR
T1 - The Western Australia Olfactory Memory Test
T2 - reliability and validity in a sample of older adults
AU - Seneviratne, Rasangi
AU - Weinborn, Michael
AU - Badcock, David R.
AU - Gavett, Brandon E.
AU - Laws, Manuela
AU - Taddei, Kevin
AU - Martins, Ralph N.
AU - Sohrabi, Hamid R.
PY - 2022/12/1
Y1 - 2022/12/1
N2 - Objective: The Western Australia Olfactory Memory Test (WAOMT) is a newly developed test designed to meet a need for a comprehensive measure of olfactory episodic memory (OEM) for clinical and research applications. Method: This study aimed to establish the psychometric properties of the WAOMT in a sample of 209 community-dwelling older adults. An independent sample of 27 test-naïve participants were recruited to assess test retest reliability (between 7 and 28 days). Scale psychometric properties were examined using item response theory methods, combined samples (final N = 241). Convergent validity was assessed by comparing performance on the WAOMT with a comprehensive neuropsychological battery of domains (verbal and visual episodic memory, and odor identification), as well as other neuropsychological skills. Based on previous literature, it was predicted that the WAOMT would be positively correlated with conceptually similar cognitive domains. Results: The WAOMT is a psychometrically sound test with adequate reliability properties and demonstrated convergent validity with tests of verbal and episodic memory and smell identification. Patterns of performance highlight learning and memory characteristics unique to OEM (e.g., learning curves, cued and free recall). Conclusion: Clinical and research implications include streamlining future versions of the WAOMT to ease patient and administrative burden, and the potential to reliably detect early neuropathological changes in healthy older adults with nonimpaired OEM abilities.
AB - Objective: The Western Australia Olfactory Memory Test (WAOMT) is a newly developed test designed to meet a need for a comprehensive measure of olfactory episodic memory (OEM) for clinical and research applications. Method: This study aimed to establish the psychometric properties of the WAOMT in a sample of 209 community-dwelling older adults. An independent sample of 27 test-naïve participants were recruited to assess test retest reliability (between 7 and 28 days). Scale psychometric properties were examined using item response theory methods, combined samples (final N = 241). Convergent validity was assessed by comparing performance on the WAOMT with a comprehensive neuropsychological battery of domains (verbal and visual episodic memory, and odor identification), as well as other neuropsychological skills. Based on previous literature, it was predicted that the WAOMT would be positively correlated with conceptually similar cognitive domains. Results: The WAOMT is a psychometrically sound test with adequate reliability properties and demonstrated convergent validity with tests of verbal and episodic memory and smell identification. Patterns of performance highlight learning and memory characteristics unique to OEM (e.g., learning curves, cued and free recall). Conclusion: Clinical and research implications include streamlining future versions of the WAOMT to ease patient and administrative burden, and the potential to reliably detect early neuropathological changes in healthy older adults with nonimpaired OEM abilities.
KW - Cognitive aging
KW - Episodic memory
KW - Item response theory
KW - Odor memory
KW - Olfaction
KW - Psychometric evaluation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85142403544&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/arclin/acac048
DO - 10.1093/arclin/acac048
M3 - Article
C2 - 35870197
AN - SCOPUS:85142403544
SN - 0887-6177
VL - 37
SP - 1720
EP - 1734
JO - Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology
JF - Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology
IS - 8
ER -