The California Verbal Learning Test—Third Edition (CVLT 3) provides a short, individually administered assessment of the strategies and processes involved in learning and remembering verbal information. Administered to individuals ages 16 to 90, the CVLT 3 not only assesses the amount of verbal material remembered, but also multiple aspects of how verbal learning occurs or fails to occur.
There are three CVLT 3 forms:
CVLT 3 Standard Form
CVLT 3 Alternate Form
CVLT 3 Brief Form
The Standard and Alternate forms of the CVLT 3 measure both recall and recognition of two lists of words over a number of immediate and delayed memory trials. In the first five trials, the examinee is asked to recall words from List A immediately after each presentation of the list. List A is composed of 16 words, four words from each of four semantic categories. An interference list (List B) of 16 words is then presented for one trial. The interference trial is followed by Short Delay Free Recall and Short Delay Cued Recall trials of List A. A 20-minute delay occurs next. After the delay, Long Delay Free Recall, Long Delay Cued Recall, and Yes/No Recognition trials of List A are administered. Then an additional 10-minute delay is given, after which the CVLT 3 ends with an optional Forced Choice Recognition trial.
For the Brief form, there are four immediate recall trials followed by a 30-second distractor task (rather than the presentation of an interference list). The distractor task is followed by the Short Delay Free Recall of the word list. A 10-minute delay occurs next, which is followed by the Long Delay Free Recall, Long Delay Cued Recall, and Yes/No Recognition trials. The Brief form ends with an optional Forced Choice Recognition trial that is administered approximately 5 minutes after the Yes/No Recognition trial.
Note: For best results, use the most recent version of either Chrome or Firefox for data entry.
The CVLT 3 has Demographics and Item Entry tabs as per the following tables.
Field Name |
Description |
Form |
Race/Ethnicity |
The examinee's race/ethnicity |
All forms |
Years of Education |
The number of years of education completed by the examinee |
All forms |
Handedness |
The examinee's preferred handedness |
All forms |
Current Medications |
The examinee's current medications |
All forms |
Comments |
Administration specific comments |
All forms |
Field Name |
Description |
Item Entry |
Responses selected from drop-down menus for Immediate Free Recall trials The following options are hyperlinks allowing the user to navigate from one set of trial responses to another. Trial 1 & Trial 2 Trial 3 & Trial 4 Trial 5 (Standard and Alternate Forms only) |
Back and Next |
Back and Next links allow the user to navigate from one tab to another |
Field Name |
Description |
Item Entry |
Responses are selected from drop-down menus for:
|
Back and Next |
Back and Next links allow the user to navigate from one tab to another |
Field Name |
Description |
Item Entry |
Responses are selected from drop-down menus for the List A Short Delay Cued Recall |
Back and Next |
Back and Next links allow the user to navigate from one tab to another |
Field Name |
Description |
Item Entry |
Responses are selected from drop-down menus for the List A Long Delay Free Recall trial (Long Delay Free Recall for Brief Form) |
Back and Next |
Back and Next links allow the user to navigate from one tab to another |
Field Name |
Description |
Item Entry |
Responses are selected from drop-down menus for the List A Long Delay Cued Recall trial (Long Delay Cued Recall for Brief Form) |
Back and Next |
Back and Next links allow the user to navigate from one tab to another |
Field Name |
Description |
All Responses Correct |
If the examinee got all responses correct, click this button to set all items to the correct response. You may click this button and then modify the item responses, if desired. Clicking the button again will reset the responses to all correct. |
Missing responses checkbox |
Use the “Treat missing responses as No responses for scoring” checkbox to specify how missing responses should be treated for scoring.
For Yes/No Recognition, refusals to respond and "I don't know" responses are recorded as missing responses. Missing responses can be scored as No responses. When this option is selected, all missing responses are scored as No responses, and raw and scaled scores for Yes/No Recognition measures are produced. Please note that the item level data does not change when this option is selected. The responses remain missing unless changed by an examiner.
If all responses are selected, the checkbox is not applicable. |
Item Entry |
Responses are selected by clicking on Yes or No
Acronym Legend T = Target Distractor Types: PR = Prototypical UN = Unrelated |
Back and Next |
Back and Next links allow the user to navigate from one tab to another |
Field Name |
Description |
All Responses Correct |
If the examinee got all responses correct, click this button to set all items to the correct response. You may click this button and then modify the item responses, if desired. Clicking the button again will reset the responses to all correct. |
Missing responses checkbox |
Use the “Treat missing responses as incorrect responses for scoring” checkbox to specify how missing responses should be treated for scoring.
For Forced Choice Recognition, refusals to respond and "I don't know" responses are recorded as missing responses. Missing responses can be scored as incorrect responses. When this option is selected, all missing responses are scored as incorrect responses, and raw and scaled scores for Forced Choice Recognition measures are produced. Please note that the item level data does not change when this option is selected. The responses remain missing unless changed by an examiner.
If all responses are selected, the checkbox is not applicable. |
Item Entry |
Responses are selected by clicking one word in each word pair. |
Back and Next |
Back and Next links allow the user to navigate from one tab to another |
Field Name |
Description |
Item Entry |
Classify intrusion words in order to receive Intrusion subtype scores on the report. Select a category or “Not a category intrusion” for each intrusion word listed.
Entry Hints and Tips The Novel and Across/Within Trial Repeated Intrusions score is calculated using the intrusion responses. Accurate entry of intrusion responses is essential. Differences in spelling or pluralization will affect the scores for these measures. |
Synonym / Subordinate |
The Synonym / Subordinate checkbox appears if you select one of the categories on the drop-down list (a selection other than “Not a category intrusion”). Check the Synonym / Subordinate checkbox when the intrusion word is a synonym or subordinate of a list word. |
Back and Next |
A Back link allows the user to navigate to the previous tab |
The following conventions are used throughout the Recall trials:
The first selection on the list is INTRUSION. Select this to enter a word that is not on the drop-down list.
On the Recall trials, the target words are presented in black text in administration order, with the correct target words presented first, followed by across-list words in blue text, if applicable.
On the Cued Recall trials, the four correct category words are presented first in black text, followed by the correct target words in gray text, then the across-list words in blue text, if applicable.
Note: If you are working on a Mac, depending upon the operating system version, the text color within the drop-down lists may not appear. This will not affect the scoring of your assessment.
For ease of keyboard entry, use the following hints and tips:
Use the TAB key to move from field to field. SHIFT-TAB will move backwards.
Use the TAB key at the end of the page to move to the links at the bottom of the page. Once you have tabbed to the Next link, press the ENTER key to move to the next entry page.
To enter list words, you can use any of the following keyboard tips:
Begin typing a word to select that word from the drop-down list.
Enter the first letter of the word to jump to words in the list that begin with that letter.
To enter an intrusion, type the letter “I” and then type the word.
To classify intrusions on the Intrusions tab, use any of the following keyboard tips:
Enter category names by typing the first letter of the category name or “N” for “Not a category intrusion.”
The Synonym/Subordinate checkbox will appear anytime a selection other than “Not a category intrusion” is chosen. Use the spacebar to check the checkbox if an intrusion is a synonym or subordinate word. Press the spacebar again to uncheck the checkbox.
When you click the Save or the Save and Close button, the system checks to ensure all of the required data have been entered. If any data are missing or invalid, you will be asked if you want to continue.
If you choose “Yes,” the record will be saved with a status of “Ready for Administration” or “Needs Editing,” depending on the data still necessary to score the assessment. When you open the assessment record again and click the "Edit" button, you will be able to complete any missing or invalid items.
If you choose “No,” you are returned to the page where you can finish entering the data immediately.
All responses are not required to be entered; however, blank or missing responses in between entries are not allowed.
The system checks for the following conditions as well upon Save or Save and Close:
One or more classifications is missing on the Intrusions tab. Intrusion subtype scores will not be included on the report.
There are missing responses in the Yes/No Recognition trial and the Treat missing responses as No responses for scoring option was not checked in the Yes/No Tab. The following message will be displayed:
There are missing responses in the Yes/No Recognition trial. The trial will not be scored because data are missing. If you wish to treat missing responses as No responses in order to receive scores for Yes/No Recognition measures, check the option within the Yes/No tab.
There are missing responses in the Forced Choice Recognition trial and the Treat missing responses as incorrect responses for scoring option was not checked in the Forced Choice Tab. The following message will be displayed:
There are missing responses in the Forced Choice Recognition trial. The trial will not be scored because data are missing. If you wish to treat missing responses as incorrect responses in order to receive scores for Forced Choice Recognition measures, check the option within the Forced Choice tab.
If any of these conditions are present, use the Edit command button to fill in the missing information so that the indicated scores will appear on the report.