Gonzalez, Katherine

The Big Five inventory is a 44-item scale that classifies participants based on five dimensions of personality with versions available in English and Spanish. Previous studies have found differences in BFI dimensions of Spanish-English bilinguals. We asked if Spanish-English bilinguals described themselves differently when answering in different languages. The present study investigated how Spanish-English bilinguals are classified when answering the BFI in both languages. In a cross-linguistic design, we assessed a sample of Spanish-English bilinguals. We hypothesized that we would find that bilinguals would score significantly different in both languages in the dimensions of extraversion and conscientiousness, with English scores being expected to be significantly higher than Spanish scores. Results revealed significantly different scores in Spanish and English in all five dimensions of the BFI. These results emphasize the issue of language in psychological evaluations, with the possibility of language dependence skewing the results for bilingual patients.

Word retrieval often presents a problem for aging populations. The Boston Naming Test (BNT) is a prevalent neuropsychological exam that uses word retrieval to reveal relevant information leading to a diagnosis of cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. This study investigated the effects of age and gender on a confrontation naming test. Confrontation naming was assessed using the Boston Naming Test. The sample included 538 participants (185 males, 383 females) individuals residing in South Florida. Participants were divided into two groups, a high cognitive functioning and a low cognitive functioning group, based on the participant’s scores on the mini mental state examination (MMSE). Results did support the hypothesis that age has a significant effect on confrontational naming test ability in both cognitive groups. Conversely, the anticipation that gender would play a role on performance on the BNT for either group was not supported by the results.