title: The effects of mask-wearing and teleneuropsychological assessment on people's memory performance on neuropsychological tests

authors: Rich, Tiffany

abstract: In the wake of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the standardised conditions of neuropsychological assessments were greatly impacted to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Neuropsychological assessment conditions were altered to be conducted remotely on Zoom (teleneuropsychological) or continued in-person with the use of face masks. The changes to standardised assessment conditions led to an increase in people’s worries around assessment, made it harder to hear the assessor which led people to increase their listening effort and created more ambiguous non-verbal social cues (Bottalico et al., 2020; Aguilar & Leguizamon, 2021). These additional assessment aspects may be leading to increased pressure on people’s cognitive load by taking up more of their cognitive resources and attention, then leaving less cognitive resources to focus on the assessment. Moreover, memory tests require high rates of attention and focus to accurately encode, manipulate and retrieve information that is presented. However, the added pressure on cognitive load leaves less available cognitive resources to focus on the memory tests, which in turn may influence people’s performance on these tests. When cognitive load is overloaded, people have issues with attention, encoding and later retrieving or remembering that same information (Lezak et al., 2004). To determine whether the changes to assessment conditions (test environment and mask-wearing) impact people’s memory performance, we conducted a 2x2 mixed methods design (between-subjects factor: test environment (zoom/in-person), within-subjects factor: mask-wearing (mask/no mask). Our sample consisted of 64 participants, aged 18-59, with 43 females, 20 males and 1 participant who preferred to self-describe. Participants were included based on a screening criteria and were required to complete a range of neuropsychological tests for two sessions, either via Zoom or in-person, 1-2 weeks apart. All participants completed one session with the assessor wearing a mask and one session without. Participants scores were compared on the Verbal Learning, Digit Span and Verbal Fluency subtests between the test environments (Zoom/In-person) and mask-wearing (Mask/no mask) variables, to assess their impacts on people’s memory functioning. Results showed no significant differences between participants’ performance on these tests between the in-person and teleneuropsychological assessments or mask-wearing compared to no mask. A statistically significant but not clinically significant interaction effect was found on Verbal Learning trial 5, where participants performed the worst in the Zoom condition when the assessor was wearing a mask. This result was not clinically significant and overall, our results suggest teleneuropsychological assessment and mask wearing during assessment do not impact people’s memory performance and, therefore, are valid and reliable methods of assessment in a population aged 18-59 years with no cognitive impairments. However, we did find that the alternate forms used for the Verbal Learning subtest were not equivalent. Participants’ performed statistically significantly worse and recalled fewer words on the Crawford Verbal Learning test compared to the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). This result was not clinically significant but is a clinically meaningful finding for neuropsychologists in New Zealand to consider when administering alternate forms of the RAVLT test.

text: The effects of mask-wearing and teleneuropsychological assessment on people's memory performance on neuropsychological tests In the wake of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the standardised conditions of neuropsychological assessments were greatly impacted to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Neuropsychological assessment conditions were altered to be conducted remotely on Zoom (teleneuropsychological) or continued in-person with the use of face masks. The changes to standardised assessment conditions led to an increase in people’s worries around assessment, made it harder to hear the assessor which led people to increase their listening effort and created more ambiguous non-verbal social cues (Bottalico et al., 2020; Aguilar & Leguizamon, 2021). These additional assessment aspects may be leading to increased pressure on people’s cognitive load by taking up more of their cognitive resources and attention, then leaving less cognitive resources to focus on the assessment. Moreover, memory tests require high rates of attention and focus to accurately encode, manipulate and retrieve information that is presented. However, the added pressure on cognitive load leaves less available cognitive resources to focus on the memory tests, which in turn may influence people’s performance on these tests. When cognitive load is overloaded, people have issues with attention, encoding and later retrieving or remembering that same information (Lezak et al., 2004). To determine whether the changes to assessment conditions (test environment and mask-wearing) impact people’s memory performance, we conducted a 2x2 mixed methods design (between-subjects factor: test environment (zoom/in-person), within-subjects factor: mask-wearing (mask/no mask). Our sample consisted of 64 participants, aged 18-59, with 43 females, 20 males and 1 participant who preferred to self-describe. Participants were included based on a screening criteria and were required to complete a range of neuropsychological tests for two sessions, either via Zoom or in-person, 1-2 weeks apart. All participants completed one session with the assessor wearing a mask and one session without. Participants scores were compared on the Verbal Learning, Digit Span and Verbal Fluency subtests between the test environments (Zoom/In-person) and mask-wearing (Mask/no mask) variables, to assess their impacts on people’s memory functioning. Results showed no significant differences between participants’ performance on these tests between the in-person and teleneuropsychological assessments or mask-wearing compared to no mask. A statistically significant but not clinically significant interaction effect was found on Verbal Learning trial 5, where participants performed the worst in the Zoom condition when the assessor was wearing a mask. This result was not clinically significant and overall, our results suggest teleneuropsychological assessment and mask wearing during assessment do not impact people’s memory performance and, therefore, are valid and reliable methods of assessment in a population aged 18-59 years with no cognitive impairments. However, we did find that the alternate forms used for the Verbal Learning subtest were not equivalent. Participants’ performed statistically significantly worse and recalled fewer words on the Crawford Verbal Learning test compared to the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). This result was not clinically significant but is a clinically meaningful finding for neuropsychologists in New Zealand to consider when administering alternate forms of the RAVLT test.

year: 2023

title: Alum dosing effects on fish and aquatic invertebrates: Utuhina Stream 2024

authors: Ling, Nicholas

abstract: To reduce external phosphorus loading to Lake Rotorua, the Bay of Plenty Regional Council has been granted resource consent to dose the Utuhina Stream with alum (aluminium sulphate). Aluminium binds phosphorus, preventing its uptake by phytoplankton and thereby inhibiting growth. Aluminium forms monomeric species outside of circum-neutral pH (pH 68), and these species can disrupt osmoregulation and respiration of aquatic organisms. The alum dose rate to the Utuhina Stream is dependent on discharge, with a maximum application rate of 1 mg Al L-1. This report presents the results of an on-going assessment of the fish and aquatic macroinvertebrate communities of the Utuhina Stream for 2024.  Macroinvertebrates, fish and kōura (freshwater crayfish; Paranephrops planifrons) were sampled from one control (site 1) and two treatment (sites 2 & 3) reaches of the Utuhina Stream. Common bully (Gobiomorphus cotidianus) were the dominant species of the fish community, with juvenile trout and kōaro (Galaxias brevipinnis) also captured. Kōura were present at all sites but variable in abundance. There was a notable decline in the semiquantitative macroinvertebrate community (for soft-bottomed streams; MCI-sb) score at Sites 1 and 3 in 2024 compared to long-term site averages, with Site 1 declining into the ‘poor’ category. Interannual variation in MCI-sb scores is typical for these reaches of the Utuhina Stream and have been attributed to flood-related disturbances to stream bank morphology and in-stream vegetative cover (Ling 2021). Tissue aluminium concentrations were determined from common bully (flesh, gill, liver) and kōura (flesh, gill, hepatopancreas) by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). There was some evidence of aluminium bioaccumulation in the liver tissues of common bully at Site 2, but overall concentrations were similar to long-term averages and there were no notable differences for the same tissues between sites. Kōura tissue aluminium concentrations for 2024 were similar to long-term averages across all tissues and sites. A small number of individuals had elevated gill concentrations at Site 3 compared to long-term average concentrations, but this is unlikely to result in harmful physiological impacts. The data presented in this report further supports the conclusion by Tempero and Ling (2024) that alum dosing does not appear to have a notable effect on the fish and kōura community and that site and interannual differences appear to be due to hydrological and habitat variability.

text: Alum dosing effects on fish and aquatic invertebrates: Utuhina Stream 2024 To reduce external phosphorus loading to Lake Rotorua, the Bay of Plenty Regional Council has been granted resource consent to dose the Utuhina Stream with alum (aluminium sulphate). Aluminium binds phosphorus, preventing its uptake by phytoplankton and thereby inhibiting growth. Aluminium forms monomeric species outside of circum-neutral pH (pH 68), and these species can disrupt osmoregulation and respiration of aquatic organisms. The alum dose rate to the Utuhina Stream is dependent on discharge, with a maximum application rate of 1 mg Al L-1. This report presents the results of an on-going assessment of the fish and aquatic macroinvertebrate communities of the Utuhina Stream for 2024.  Macroinvertebrates, fish and kōura (freshwater crayfish; Paranephrops planifrons) were sampled from one control (site 1) and two treatment (sites 2 & 3) reaches of the Utuhina Stream. Common bully (Gobiomorphus cotidianus) were the dominant species of the fish community, with juvenile trout and kōaro (Galaxias brevipinnis) also captured. Kōura were present at all sites but variable in abundance. There was a notable decline in the semiquantitative macroinvertebrate community (for soft-bottomed streams; MCI-sb) score at Sites 1 and 3 in 2024 compared to long-term site averages, with Site 1 declining into the ‘poor’ category. Interannual variation in MCI-sb scores is typical for these reaches of the Utuhina Stream and have been attributed to flood-related disturbances to stream bank morphology and in-stream vegetative cover (Ling 2021). Tissue aluminium concentrations were determined from common bully (flesh, gill, liver) and kōura (flesh, gill, hepatopancreas) by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). There was some evidence of aluminium bioaccumulation in the liver tissues of common bully at Site 2, but overall concentrations were similar to long-term averages and there were no notable differences for the same tissues between sites. Kōura tissue aluminium concentrations for 2024 were similar to long-term averages across all tissues and sites. A small number of individuals had elevated gill concentrations at Site 3 compared to long-term average concentrations, but this is unlikely to result in harmful physiological impacts. The data presented in this report further supports the conclusion by Tempero and Ling (2024) that alum dosing does not appear to have a notable effect on the fish and kōura community and that site and interannual differences appear to be due to hydrological and habitat variability.

year: 2025

title: Responsive socio-cultural contexts: Supporting five year olds to become literate in a second language.

authors: Berryman, Mere

subjects: bilingual learners

abstract: Learning one's own indigenous language and culture as a second language learner within formal mainstream education settings can pose many challenges, especially for students who have been raised in the dominant first language and who are just beginning school. This paper discusses a Māori language resource used by a Māori immersion teacher to respond to these challenges. This resource utilises community support to develop students' phonological awareness while simultaneously increasing their oral language. This study shows that within a relatively short period of time, students' phonological knowledge improved along with their confidence and ability to speak in Māori. With these skills they were then able to progress more successfully to becoming literate in Māori, their second language.

text: Responsive socio-cultural contexts: Supporting five year olds to become literate in a second language. Learning one's own indigenous language and culture as a second language learner within formal mainstream education settings can pose many challenges, especially for students who have been raised in the dominant first language and who are just beginning school. This paper discusses a Māori language resource used by a Māori immersion teacher to respond to these challenges. This resource utilises community support to develop students' phonological awareness while simultaneously increasing their oral language. This study shows that within a relatively short period of time, students' phonological knowledge improved along with their confidence and ability to speak in Māori. With these skills they were then able to progress more successfully to becoming literate in Māori, their second language.

year: 2012