The Pyramids and Palm Trees Test

The pattern of results from this simple forced-choice format test can be used to build up a picture of the subject’s ability to access semantic and conceptual information.

Benefits

• Indicates whether a subject has a central, modality-independent impairment to semantic knowledge.
• Gives information whether there are modality-specific difficulties in access to semantics.
• Establish the cause of a subject’s difficulty in naming or pointing to a named picture.
• May help in the design of appropriate rehabilitation programs.

Features

Six different versions of the test are possible by using either pictures, or written or spoken words to change the modality of stimulus or response items. The test is ideal for theoretically motivated testing of picture and word comprehension in subjects with:

• Aphasia
• Global aphasia
• Visual agnosia
• General semantic impairment (i.e., Alzheimer’s disease)