Measures memory and learning in older adults.
Paula Altman Fuld, Ph.D.

• Age Range: Adults, 70-90 years
• Time: Approximately 15 minutes, individual administration

The Fuld Object-Memory Evaluation allows the examiner to evaluate memory and learning under conditions that virtually guarantee attention and minimize anxiety. It eliminates questions about the effects of poor vision, hearing, language handicaps, cultural differences or inattention because the procedure guarantees attention even under adverse testing conditions.

The test was developed with hundreds of aged adults, nursing home residents and community active people, for whom norms are provided. It has also proved easy-to-give and effective with school-age children. The blind or deaf are not at a disadvantage on this test. It appears to be relatively "culture fair," as well. It provides separate scores for long term storage, retrieval, consistency of retrieval, and failure to recall items even after reminding. It provides a chance to observe word-finding ability, left-right orientation, stereognosis, and verbal fluency.

Ten common objects in a bag are presented to determine whether the patient can identify objects by touch (stereognosis). The patient is not told that memory of this event will be tested. (Left and right hands are alternated systematically, providing information about the patient's left-right orientation). The patient names, or describes, each object and then pulls it out of the bag "to see if it was right." After distracting the patient, by asking the patient to say words rapidly from a single category (rapid verbal retrieval), the patient is asked to recall the things from the bag. The patient is then offered four more chances to learn and recall them (store and retrieve) by reminding the patient of omitted items after each recall, with rapid verbal retrieval preventing rehearsal before each recall opportunity. Two equivalent alternate forms of the test are available.

Objects found in the Fuld, Form I Kit (33925) are: Ball, Bottle, Button, Card, Cup, Key, Matches, Nail, Ring, and Scissors

Objects found in the Fuld, Form II Kit (33926) are: Can, Comb, Lock, Nail file, Pencil, Rubber Band, Spoon, Coin, Toothbrush, Wristwatch

Each Fuld Test Kit contains the Manual, a set of items in a black cloth bag, and a package of 30 Record Forms for the selected Test Form.

References

• Lowenstein, D. (1995). The fuld OME as a more culture-fair memory test in the elderly. Clinical Gerontologist: The Journal of Aging and Mental Health, 15(4), 52-58. 
• Ortiz, I. E., LaRue, A., Romero, L. J., Sassaman, M. F., & Lindeman, R. D. (1997). Comparison of cultural bias in two cognitive screening instruments in elderly hispanic patients in new mexico. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 5(4), 333-338.
  
• Supports use of Fuld over Mini-Mental State Exam with an ethnically diverse population
• Summers, J. D., Lichtenberg, P. A., & Vangel, S. J. (1995). Fuld object-memory evaluation in an urban geriatric population. Clinical Gerontologist: The Journal of Aging and Mental Health, 15(4), 21-34.
• Supports use of Fuld with an urban ethnically diverse population

• Wall, J. R., Deshpande, S. A., MacNeill, S. E., & Lichtenberg, P. A. (1998). The fuld object memory evaluation, a useful tool in the assessment of urban geriatric patients. Clinical Gerontologist: The Journal of Aging and Mental Health, 19(1), 39-49