Katz N, Champagne D, Cermak S
School of Occupational Therapy, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
Am J Occup Ther. 1997 Jul-Aug;51(7):562-8. doi: 10.5014/ajot.51.7.562.
Because constructional ability is a crucial perceptual-motor skill that relates to daily functioning, it should be accurately assessed in clients with neurological dysfunction. This study examined three versions of the Puzzle Reproduction task (a constructional ability task) of the Loewenstein Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment (LOTCA) in order to determine whether a reduced-detail version of the task would be easier (i.e., require less time to complete) than the original version and whether a subplacement version would be more difficult to perform (i.e., require more time to complete) than the original version. In addition, the study examined whether older adult subjects would perform more slowly than younger adult subjects.
Seventy-two right-handed adults with no disabilities were divided into two age groups: 18 to 30 years old (n = 36) and 58 to 70 years old (n = 36). Each subject was tested on one of three versions of the LOTCA Puzzle Reproduction task (i.e., original subplacement, simplified).
For the older subjects, the simplified version of the task required significantly less time than the original version, although there was not a significant time difference between the original and subplacement versions. For the younger subjects, the subplacement versions. required significantly more time than the original version, but there was no significant time difference between the original and simplified versions. Results also indicated that older subjects took significantly longer to perform all three versions of the task than did the younger subjects.
The findings support the use of the simplified version of the LOTCA Puzzle Reproduction task with older adults or with persons with major cognitive-perceptual difficulties. Further studies of the level of difficulty of the subplacement version are needed to examine whether this version is more sensitive to constructional deficits in a sample of person with neurological impairments because even mild constructional deficits have been shown to relate to disabilities in daily functioning.
由于构建能力是一项与日常功能相关的关键感知运动技能，因此应在神经功能障碍患者中对其进行准确评估。本研究对洛温斯坦职业疗法认知评估（LOTCA）中的拼图复制任务（一项构建能力任务）的三个版本进行了测试，以确定该任务的简化版是否比原始版更简单（即完成所需时间更少），以及子放置版是否比原始版更难执行（即完成所需时间更多）。此外，该研究还考察了老年受试者的表现是否会比年轻成年受试者更慢。
72名无残疾的右利手成年人被分为两个年龄组：18至30岁（n = 36）和58至70岁（n = 36）。每位受试者接受LOTCA拼图复制任务三个版本之一（即原始子放置版、简化版）的测试。
对于老年受试者，任务的简化版所需时间明显少于原始版，尽管原始版和子放置版之间没有显著的时间差异。对于年轻受试者，子放置版所需时间明显多于原始版，但原始版和简化版之间没有显著的时间差异。结果还表明，老年受试者完成所有三个版本任务的时间明显长于年轻受试者。
研究结果支持对老年人或有严重认知感知困难的人使用LOTCA拼图复制任务的简化版。需要对子放置版的难度水平进行进一步研究，以检验该版本对神经损伤患者样本中的构建缺陷是否更敏感，因为即使是轻微的构建缺陷也已被证明与日常功能障碍有关。
