Comparisons between two adapted versions of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test in Brazilian adults: Effects of age and education

Reassessments with the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) may generate learning effects, compromising the validity of the results. In Brazil, there are still no comparative studies between adapted versions of the test in healthy individuals. This study compared scores obtained on versions A and B of the RAVLT-A, routinely used in the neuropsychological assessment of patients with epilepsy and investigated the effects of age, education and version used. A prospective study with 188 cognitively healthy adults was randomly assigned to two groups (version A or B). Comparative analyses between groups and multivariate linear regression models were conducted to examine the impact of age, education and version on RAVLT-A scores. No significant differences were observed between versions A and B of the RAVLT-A (p > .05). Regression indicated a significant influence of age and, especially, education on performance on the test variables. The version used had no statistically relevant impact on the scores. This is the first Brazilian study to examine two adapted versions of the RAVLT-A in healthy adults. The findings demonstrate comparability between versions A and B, supporting their alternate use in reassessments to reduce practice effects. Age and, especially, education significantly influenced performance, emphasizing the need for normative data stratified by both variables, since those commonly used in Brazil are stratified only by age.