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Neuropsychological comparisons of Spanish-speaking participants from the U.S.–Mexico border region versus Spain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 1998

LIDIA ARTIOLA i FORTUNY
Affiliation:
Independent Practice, Tucson, AZ, USA
ROBERT K. HEATON
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego, USA
DAVID HERMOSILLO
Affiliation:
University of Arizona, Tucson, USA

Abstract

Two samples of participants from the U.S.–Mexico Borderland (N = 185) versus Spain (N = 205) were compared on 16 Spanish-language neuropsychological measures. In most measures the two samples obtained similar results. There were some significant main effects of place of birth and some significant interactions between education and place of birth. Differences between the samples diminished with increasing levels of education. Within the Borderland sample, percent of life span spent in the U.S. and bilingual status were correlated with performance in some tests. Increased percent of life span spent in the U.S. was negatively correlated with performance on a Spanish word-generation task, and positively correlated with performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Bilingual Borderland participants performed significantly better than monolingual speakers in learning a list of words. We suggest that the most likely causes for the observed interaction effects are documented regional differences in early SES-related nutrition, medical care, quality of educational experiences, and general socioeconomic conditions. (JINS, 1998, 4, 363–379.)

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1998 The International Neuropsychological Society

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