Letter names

This is a test of visual-verbal associative memory in which the student has to remember the name that is given to each symbol in the subtest. The scenario is that a girl called Zoe has a secret language, with ‘letters’ (some of which are from Letters) that have names. Zoe wants to see if the student can remember the names of the letters. The computer shows two of Zoe’s letters and tells the student the name of each. The computer then asks the student to show it one of Zoe’s letters, by selecting the symbol that was associated with the name spoken (see Figure 23). Care must be taken to ensure that the student listens carefully and is concentrating on the task. It is not expected that the student will recognise the symbol name since it is a non-word. This is part of the subtest design and is obviously much less dependent on the familiarity with words or the vocabulary experience of the student than it would be if real names were used in the subtest. There is a practice phase followed by a test phase.


Figure 23. ‘Which one is called Baf?’