Confrontation Naming and Generative Naming in Dementia: A Comparison

Abstract

The Picture naming test is a widely accepted method to assess the cognitive deterioration in patients with Dementia. It is presumed to require access to semantic memory and so would be a valuable tool in analysing the nature of semantic deterioration. Language functioning and social performance has been to gradually decrease with progression of the disease. The aim of this study was to identify the differences between confrontation naming and generative or divergent naming in patients with dementia of Alzheimer’s type and to provide insight into the representations within semantic memory. Both of these naming tasks have been found to be effective in identifying dementia as well as provide insight into the progression of the disease. Confrontation naming involves direct selection of a semantic memory category in response to a visually presented stimulus. Divergent naming includes accessing a multitude of words that are triggered by the presentation of auditory stimuli. The confrontation naming task used was picture naming and the generative or divergent naming task was verbal fluency task. The current study considered a control group (30) and an experimental group with age and gender matched individuals (30). The picture naming task consisted of 20 pictures of commonly used everyday objects. Category Fluency Task with Subtask I (living) and subtask II (non-living) was used. There was a noticeable difference in performance in both tasks between the control group and experimental group. It is also important to note that the experimental group performed significantly lower in the divergent naming task compared to the confrontational naming task. This might be attributed to the presence of the visual stimuli contributing as a cue in the confrontation naming task. Divergent naming or Category fluency necessitates the recall of multiple responses from a hierarchically and categorically organised information. This indicates that naming tasks can be used to identify semantic deterioration, thereby aiding in the early diagnosis and intervention of individuals with Dementia.