A clinical comparison of two forms of the card sorting test

Abstract

Abstract This study examined 67 older adults with dementia and 157 predominantly younger individuals with HIV-1 infection to determine the comparability of two commonly used forms of the Card Sorting Test: the traditional Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and Nelson's Modified Card Sorting Test (MCST). Three frequently used clinical outcome measures were examined: the total number of categories achieved; the ratio of perseverative errors to total trials; and the number of failures to maintain set exhibited in the protocol. Our results indicated that when the number of perseverative errors relative to total trials is used as a clinical indicator, the WCST and MCST appear to be comparable. For the number of categories achieved, the forms appear comparable only in the non-elderly, non-demented sample. Finally, we did not find comparable results between the two forms for the number of failures to maintain set.