Interpretation of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery by Item Intercorrelation: The Tactile scale.

In the 5th of a series, the present article deals with the intercorrelation between the Tactile scale and the remaining items of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery to determine items that are likely to be related to various forms of tactile skills or deficits. 338 patients diagnosed as normal, psychiatric, or brain damaged (mean age 40.38 yrs) were administered the battery. Items strongly related to the Tactile items were indicated by a cutoff of .35 or higher. In general, tactile items were related to a large number of items on other scales, although these correlations rarely exceeded .5. This appeared to emphasize the basic nature of the tactile skills to a large number of higher cognitive operations: They are necessary but not sufficient for the completion of those higher skills, much as is suggested in Luria's hierarchial theory. A presentation of all significant correlations is made in the paper. (13 ref)