Benton Visual Retention Test performance in normal adults and acute stroke patients: demographic considerations, discriminant validity, and test-retest reliability.

We examined relationships between demographic variables and Benton Visual Retention Test performance in 352 healthy Greek adults, aged 18-84 years. We derived norms for BVRT total number correct and error scores adjusted for variables that contributed significantly to the variance. We also investigated BVRT performance in 28 acute stroke patients M = 6.14 days after insult. Age, education, and IQ, but not gender, were significantly associated with BVRT performance in healthy participants. However, only age contributed significantly to BVRT performance in acute stroke patients. Test-retest reliability was moderate (.782) for number correct and low for number error (.596) scores. Practice effects were noted only for number correct score. The test appears to discriminate adequately between acute stroke patients and matched healthy controls.