Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT)
Kevin Bortnick · 2024
The Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT) outcome measures are standardized assessments of memory designed to quantify problems associated with episodic and prospective memory and orientation difficulties, as well to monitor change following therapeutic interventions ( Quemada et al., 2003 ). The RBMT was originally composed of 12 subtests that represent typical everyday activities, such as remembering an appointment, a name, or a short route as well as picture or face recognition. During assessment the client receives a stimuli and must recall that stimuli or perform certain activities based on recall when asked by the examiner. The original RBMT uses a dichotomous scoring system in which the person either receives a pass or fail, thus more items passed indicates better memory performance. Although the RBMT has shown to be ecologically valid at detecting impairment, especially in low-functioning individuals, the simplified pass/fail scoring system is considered less sensitive to a spectrum of possible scores, which lead to the development of the RBMT-E (extended version) as well as the RBMT second and third editions, whose scoring is more perceptive of the subtler decrements of memory performance ( Wills, Clare, Shiel, & Wilson, 2000 ). The latest version, RBMT-3 is a 10 item restructured edition that includes updated stimuli from the original, improved data and norms, as well as a new novel task subtest, which is a puzzle that has to be solved in a fixed order. It comprises six domains relative to verbal and nonverbal episodic memory, spatial memory, aspects of prospective memory, and procedural memory ( Wester, Leenders, Egger, & Kessels, 2013 ; Wester, van Herten, Egger, & Kessels, et al. 2013). Administration time is less than 30 minutes and in addition to the raw scores on subtests, a Global Memory Index (GMI) can be computed for overall performance ( Wester, van Herten, et al., 2013 ).