Avaliação da Inteligência Pré-Mórbida: Desenvolvimento da versão experimental do Teste de Leitura de Palavras Irregulares (TeLPI) para a população portuguesa

Abstract

In order to establish a patient´s cognitive decline and in the absence of objective information on the patient´s prior level of functioning, clinicians have to rely on methods of premorbid intelligence estimation. This assessment is clinically essential when trying to define the existence, degree, extension and course of injuries with potential cognitive decline. Recent work in this area interconnects the current capacity to read irregular words to current rates of intelligence and demographic variables, using regression formulas. The frequent use of premorbid intelligence estimation tests in neuropsychological examination protocols justifies the construction of an analogous test for the Portuguese population. Therefore, with the objective of creating a trustworthy instrument of premorbid intelligence estimation, the first experimental version of TeLPI was developed, constituted by 121 Portuguese irregular words (105 infrequent, and 16 frequent). This study presents the methodology of construction of TeLPI, its item selection and the future challenges for the establishment of its final version.