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Boston Naming Test (BNT) - 30-item version
Availability
Please visit this website for more information about the instrument: Boston Naming Test (BNT) - 30-item version
 
The BNT is included in the Boston Aphasia Diagnostic Examination (Third Edition).
Classification
NeuroRehab Supplemental - Highly Recommended:
Recommendations for Use: Indicated for studies requiring a measure of comorbidities.
Recommended for Epilepsy and Stroke studies.
 
Supplemental - Highly Recommended: Epilepsy and Stroke
 
Supplemental: Mitochondrial Disease (Mito)
 
Exploratory: Unruptured Cerebral Aneurysms and Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (SAH)
Short Description of Instrument
Purpose
The 30-item version of the Boston Naming Test (BNT) was designed to differentiate between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and normal participants. This version is useful for repeated assessments of a naming task, as well as in situations where administration of the complete BNT is not practical (Mack et al., 1992).
 
Overview
The BNT and its short forms are tasks of visual confrontation naming, sensitive to deficits in semantic retrieval. Norms for this 30-item version were developed using a registry including normal controls, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and AD (Jefferson et al., 2007). Items have been rank ordered in terms of their ability to be named, which is thought to be correlated with their frequency.
 
Time
The assessment takes approximately 10 minutes.
Comments/Special Instructions
Other Important Notes
Spanish versions of the BNT are available (Pena-Casanova et al., 2009; Ponton et al., 1996).
Scoring and Psychometric Properties
Scoring: Patients have 20 seconds to respond to each item. Each item is scored as correct, correct with semantic cues, or correct with phonemic cues. The total score is the number correct spontaneously or with semantic cues.
 
Psychometric Properties: Inter-judge and intra-judge reliability were found to be high, average of 89.1% and 97.6% respectively. Overall reliability using a matrix agreement system adjusting for chance was 91.2% (Nicholas et al., 1989).
Rationale/Justification
Strengths:
  • Brief administration time
  • One of the most frequently used confrontation naming tasks
  • Assessment of word-finding difficulties
  • Adolescent norms now available
 
Weaknesses:
Psychometric properties of difficulty and discrimination properties for some items
References
Key References:
Goodglass H, Kaplan E, Barresi B. The assessment of aphasia and related disorders (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2001.
 
Fong MWM, Van Patten R, Fucetola RP. The Factor Structure of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination, Third Edition. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2019 Aug;25(7):772-6.
 
Additional References:
Jefferson AL, Wong S, Gracer TS, Ozonoff A, Green RC, Stern RA. Geriatric performance on an abbreviated version of the Boston naming test. Appl Neuropsychol. 2007;14(3):215-23.
 
Mack WJ, Freed DM, Williams BW, Henderson VW. Boston Naming Test: shortened versions for use in Alzheimer's disease. J Gerontol. 1992 May;47(3):154-8.
 
Martielli TM, Blackburn LB. When a funnel becomes a martini glass: Adolescent performance on the Boston Naming Test. Child Neuropsychol. 2016;22(4):381-93.
 
Nicholas LE, Brookshire RH, MacLennan DL, Schumacher JG, Porrazzo SA. Revised administration and scoring procedures for the Boston Naming test and norms for non-brain-damaged adults. Aphasiology. 1989;3(6):569-80.
 
Pena-Casanova J, Quinones-Ubeda S, Gramunt-Fombuena N, Aguilar M, Casas L, Molinuevo JL, Robles A, Rodriguez D, Barquero MS, Antunez C, Martinez-Parra C, Frank-Garcia A, Fernandez M, Molano A, Alfonso V, Sol JM, Blesa R; NEURONORMA Study Team. Spanish Multicenter Normative Studies (NEURONORMA Project): norms for Boston naming test and token test. Arch Clin Neuropsychol. 2009 Jun;24(4):343-54.
 
Ponton MO, Satz P, Herrera L, Ortiz F, Urrutia CP, Young R, D'Elia LF, Furst CJ, Namerow N. Normative data stratified by age and education for the Neuropsychological Screening Battery for Hispanics (NeSBHIS): Initial report. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 1996 Mar;2(2):96-104.
 
Strauss E, Sherman EMS, Spreen O. A compendium of neuropsychological tests: administration, norms, and commentary, 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press; 2006. p. 901-15.
 
Document last updated March 2024