تعمريات-إشكاليات إختبار الحالة الغقلية في المتعلمين والأميين

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[12/15, 9:20 PM] ahmed mohammedin: Iliiteracy is a significant issue in parts of most cognitive tests.

Perhaps that's why we have significant issues in applying cognitive tests in the Arabic countries.

A Turkish group has developed a specific test for illitrates.

Another issue is the relative "stiffness & skepticism" of the average Arabic citizen.

Perhaps the best test is the most culturally adapted one.

[12/15, 9:43 PM] ahmed mohammedin: Just sharing one insight.

The issue of affection of psychologic test by education is well known.

As for the issue of high education specifically in cognitive assessment,

I was discussing this issue with one British old age psychiatrist few years back. Let me share some insights.

He mentioned the case of one of the formers heads of the Royal college of physics, (physics & not physicians).

His wife came with him to the clinic, complaining that her husband has "changed" mentally.

The old age psychiatrist and his fellow psychologist interviewed the scientist and examined him by several cognitive tests and even by detailed cognitive batteries.

However the Physics professor always had score above the 99.5 centile scores and frequently 100%.

The doctor told the wife: i don't have any scientific evidence of a cognitive decline. Even his ADLs doesn't seem to be affected.

The wife said in anger: please read one of his this year published articles and compare to a 2 years back article.

The doctor said: i am a physician, I won't be able to understand physics.

After insistence from the wife (she said that she can recognize the difference although not being a scientist), the doctor tried to compare the two articles to calm her.

He was amazed that he could notice a significant difference (from a non-specialized person) between the 2 articles regarding many issues, i remember mentioning the depth of ideas, the sentences, expression choice and figures of speech ...etc.

My own opinion: Perhaps we can not use tools and batteries designed for the average educated person to assess the extremes of education, both the illiterate and the highly educated.

In the highly educated person, we need to take care of the "Advanced ADLs". Advanced ADLs has no scale to measure, but is customized according to the person according to his life course.

In this example, it's "writing scientific articles", perhaps writing poetry and other arts, may be a reflection of Advanced ADLs.

Also, there is one aspect of dementia that is understudied, due to the many difficulties of assessment.

It's the "social cognition".

However, in the past few years, studies in thi aspect is increasing.