Clinical Neuropsychiatry (2013) 10, 2, 111-119 CROSS-CULTURAL ADAPTATION OF VISUAL REPRODUCTION SUBTEST OF WECHSLER MEMORY SCALE FOURTH EDITION (WMS-IV) TO A BRAZILIAN CONTEXT Carina Tellaroli Spedo, Maria Paula Foss, Adriana Helena Nascimento Elias, Danilo Assis Pereira, Patrícia Leila dos Santos, Graziela Nogueira de Almeida Ribeiro, Fernanda Belinassi Balarini, Clara Monteiro Antunes Barreira, Octávio Pontes Neto, Amilton Antunes Barreira Abstract Objective: Brazilian versions of instruments to evaluate non-verbal memory are scarce. The Visual Reproduction (VR) subscales I and II of the Wechsler Memory Scale are considered the gold standard among memory assessment measures. The aim of the present study was to develop a cross-cultural adaptation of the Visual Reproduction subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale–fourth edition (VR-IV), suitable for Brazil, and to evaluate its preliminary psychometric properties. Method: Participant assessment and data analysis followed the methodology recommended by the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education (2009). Eighty-ive healthy adult volunteers and 29 adult right-middle cerebral artery (RMCA) stroke patients were evaluated. The adaptation of the VR-IV involved a group of experts and translators who analysed conceptual, item, semantic, and operational equivalence. Some psychometric properties of the instrument were also evaluated. Results: All the equivalence categories were achieved in the Portuguese adaptation. Signiicant healthy group correlation coeficients were also obtained. Scale reliability analyses showed moderate correlations that indicated the temporal stability of the instrument. The RMCA stroke patients obtained lower raw scores in all tasks of the VR-IV in comparison to the control group. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the Portuguese adaptation of the VR-IV has cultural reliability and validity for use in Brazil. The performance of the RMCA stroke patients and paired controls was best evaluated using contrast scaled scores, in comparison to the performance using each variable separately. The contrast scaled scores enabled the observation that the RMCA stroke patients had limitations in encoding and retrieving learning information. Key words: cross-cultural comparison, Wechsler Memory Scale, memory deicit, memory disorders, visual memory, middle cerebral artery stroke Declaration of interest: The authors declare no conlict of interest. Carina Tellaroli Spedo¹, Maria Paula Foss¹ ², Adriana Helena Nascimento Elias¹, Danilo Assis Pereira³, Patrícia Leila dos Santos¹, Graziela Nogueira de Almeida Ribeiro¹, Fernanda Belinassi Balarini¹, Clara Monteiro Antunes Barreira¹, Octávio Pontes Neto¹, Amilton Antunes Barreira¹ 1 Department of Neurosciences, School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo (USP), Ribeirão Preto SP, Brazil. 2 Department of Psychology School of Philosophy, Sciences and Languages, University of São Paulo (USP), Ribeirão Preto SP, Brazil. ³ IBNeuro – Brazilian Institute of Neuropsychology and Cognitive Sciences, Brasilia-DF, Brazil. Supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) and the Fundação de Amparo ao Ensino e à Assistência do Hospital das Clínicas de Ribeirão Preto. Carina Tellaroli Spedo: substantial contribution to a) the conception, design, collection, and interpretation of the data; b) the drafting of the article; and c) inal approval of the version to be published. Maria Paula Foss and Amilton Antunes Barreira: substantial contribution to a) the conception, design, and interpretation of the data; b) drafting the article; and c) inal approval of the version to be published. Danilo Assis Pereira: statistical and psychometric analysis, and critical revision of the intellectual content. Fernanda Belinassi Balarini, Patrícia Leila dos Santos, and Graziela Nogueira de Almeida Ribeiro: substantial contribution to translation and critical revision of the intellectual content. Clara Monteiro Antunes Barreira: substantial contribution to analyses of size and extent of patients’ stroke damage and critical revision of the intellectual content. Adriana Helena do Nascimento Elias: drafting the article and critical revision of the intellectual content. Octávio Pontes Neto: substantial contribution to conception, design, analysis, and interpretation of the stroke patients’ data and neurological damage, and critical revision of the intellectual content. Corresponding author Amilton Antunes Barreira Departamento de Neurociências, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto Av Bandeirantes 3900, CEP: 14049-900 Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brasil Phone: + 55 16 3602-2557 Fax: +55 15 3602-4595 Submitted January 2012, accepted april 2013 © 2013 Giovanni Fioriti Editore s.r.l. 111