Normative data for neuropsychological measures of fluency, attention, and memory measures for Hong Kong Chinese

Abstract

Normative information on neuropsychological measures for Chinese people is scarce. This study addresses this inadequacy by providing norms on several tests, using a sample of 475 Cantonese-speaking Chinese aged from 13 to 46. Included are eight neuropsychological measures of attention, memory, and fluency, which provided an overview of some important neuropsychological functions along the verbal-nonverbal axis. Age, gender, and education were factors observed to have an effect on the test performance of these participants. This pattern is consistent with that reported in Western literature. These measures appear to be appropriate clinical instruments for use in Hong Kong Chinese society, although the usefulness of the current norms is limited to adolescents and, to a lesser extent, to young adults in that population. Also, because of possibly important differences in the linguistic and educational backgrounds of Hong Kong residents versus Chinese residents of other countries (including mainland China and North America), applicability of the current norms outside of Hong Kong is currently uncertain.