A neurocognitive screening tool for deaf sign language users in Germany: the KoDGS
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Background Existing neurocognitive and language assessments provide normative data only for hearing or hard‐of‐hearing people (Brünecke et al., 2018; Völter et al., 2023) with inaccurate diagnosis and inadequate care for sign language using communities. The British Sign Language Cognitive Screening Test (BSL‐CST) (Atkinson et al., 2015) is a sign language‐based, normed, validated and clinically applied cognitive screening tool designed to identify dementia in BSL users. Several projects are currently working on adaptations into other sign languages (Tsatali et al., 2023). This paper presents the German sign language (DGS) adaptation. Method A culturally and linguistically appropriate DGS version (the KoDGS) was produced through an extensive adaptation process. The KoDGS assesses orientation, attention, memory, language, semantic verbal fluency, visual‐spatial abilities and perception as well as executive functions. It was administered to 99 deaf individuals (age: 50 ‐ 96 yrs; M = 64.33), together with social and neurological histories. Convergent measures were applied to check for test validity. Result The KoDGS significantly differentiates between normative ( n = 86) and neurological ( n = 13) samples, with a threshold for clinical test application. Positive correlations between convergent measures indicate robust test validity. Conclusion This paper presents the first cognitive screening tool in DGS, with potential to improve neuropsychological screening of signers in Germany. The study makes a significant contribution to research on diagnosing dementia in underserved minority communities, outlining a process for cultural and linguistic adaptation of cognitive screening tools, applicable to other sign languages and deaf communities. References 1. Atkinson, J., et al. (2015). Detecting Cognitive Impairment and Dementia in Deaf People: The British Sign Language Cognitive Screening Test. Arch Clin Neuropsych , 30 (7), 649‐711 2. Brünecke, I., Hölsken, S. & Kessler, J. (2018). Der DemTect Eye+Ear ‐ Neues kognitives Screeningverfahren bei schwerhörigen Menschen mit Demenzverdacht. Zeitschrift für Audiologie , 57(3), 121. 3. Tsatali, M., et al. (2023). A Cognitive Screening Test for detecting Alzheimer's Disease Dementia in Deaf older adults in Austria and Greece: the De‐Sign Erasmus+ project. 33 rd Alzheimer Europe Conference, Helsinki. 4. Völter, C., et al. (2023). Validation of the German Montreal‐Cognitive‐Assessment‐H for hearing‐impaired. Front Aging Neurosci , 15 , https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2023.1209385
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".