Biographical Sketch

Pauline Spaan (1974) works part-time as an assistant professor of Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Amsterdam and part-time as a GZ-psychologist for neuropsychological assessment and treatment at the Unit of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology of the OLVG hospital Amsterdam.

In addition, she is in training to be registered as a Clinical Neuropsychologist (BIG) at the RINO Utrecht.

Her research (PhD received in 2003) focusses on the early assessment of dementia (preclinical Alzheimer's disease, or Mild Cognitive Impairment) and how various memory components (episodic, semantic, implicit) may improve the prediction of dementia.

Furthermore, she has plans to have her neuropsychological tests published in the near future, so these may improve dementia assessment in clinical practice (...to be continued).

Her lecturing activities focus on neuropsychological assessment of dementia and ageing in general, as well as on neuropsychological rehabilitation.

• More Biographical Sketch at LinkedIn

• OLVG P&MP

• RINO Utrecht KNP BIG

• Information about studying Clinical Neuropsychology at UvA

Research interests

Pauline's research focusses on the early assessment of dementia (preclinical Alzheimer's disease, or Mild Cognitive Impairment) and how various memory components (episodic, semantic, implicit) may improve the prediction of dementia. In particular, she is interested in the nature of semantic processing deficits in (early stage) Alzheimer's disease and how this contributes to a more reliable differential assessment. In recent ongoing research projects,she is investigating this issue by means of paired-associate learning tests, recognition formats as well as analysing response profiles in category fluency tests.

Furthermore, she is interested in explaining patterns of age-related cognitive deficits within the normal ageing spectrum: from young-old (55+) to very old age (up to 96 years old). More specifically, she studies (by means of structural equation modeling) the interplay between episodic and semantic memory components, on the one hand, and processing speed and executive functioning, on the other hand.

In addition, she has developed an improved word stem completion priming task that is able to validly measure implicit memory performance within the normal ageing spectrum. This task still has to be investigated in dementia patients.

Publications

• Rienstra, A., Groot, P.F.C., Spaan, P.E.J., Majoie, C.B.L.M., Nederveen, A.J., Walstra, G.J.M., de Jonghe,  J.F.M., van Gool, W.A., Olabarriaga, S.; Korkhov, V., & Schmand, B. (2012). Symptom validity testing in memory clinics: Hippocampal-memory associations and relevance for diagnosing MCI. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, DOI:10.1080/13803395.2012.751361.

• Spaan, P.E.J., & Bouma, A. (2012). Cambridge Cognitive Examination (CAMCOG). In A. Bouma, J. Mulder, J. Lindeboom, & B. Schmand (Eds.), Handboek neuropsychologische assessment (2nd ed.) (pp. 791-808). Amsterdam: Pearson Assessment and Information B.V.
• Spaan, P.E.J. & Bouma, A. (2012). Visuele Associatie Test (VAT). In A. Bouma, J. Mulder, J. Lindeboom, & B. Schmand (Eds.),  Handboek neuropsychologische assessment  (2nd ed.) (pp. 283-296). Amsterdam: Pearson Assessment and Information B.V.
• Spaan, P.E.J. (2012). Cognitieve achteruitgang bij normale veroudering en de ziekte van Alzheimer: Een continue of discontinue overgang? Tijdschrift voor Neuropsychologie , 7 (1), 3-15.
• Spaan, P.E.J., & Raaijmakers, J.G.W. (2011). Priming effects from young-old to very old age on a word-stem completion task: Minimizing explicit contamination. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition , 18 (1), 86-107.
• Rienstra, A., Spaan, P.E.J., & Schmand, B. (2010). Validation of symptom validity tests using a 'child model' of adult cognitiveimpairments. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology , 25 , 371-382.
• Spaan, P.E.J., & Dolan, C.V. (2010). Cognitive decline in normal ageing and early Alzheimer's disease: A continuous or discontinuous transition? Behavioural Neurology , 23 (4), 203-206. 
• Rienstra, A., Spaan, P.E.J., & Schmand, B. (2009). Reference data for the Word Memory Test. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology , 24 , 255-262.
• Spaan, P.E.J., Raaijmakers, J.G.W., & Jonker, C. (2005). Early assessment of dementia: The contribution of different memory components. Neuropsychology , 19 (5), 629-640.
• Spaan, P.E.J., Raaijmakers, J.G.W., & Jonker, C. (2003). Alzheimer's disease versus normal ageing: A review of the efficiency of clinical and experimental memory measures. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology , 25 (2), 216-233.
• Spaan, P.E.J. (2003). Vroegdiagnostiek van dementie: De bijdrage van verschillende geheugencomponenten. Neuropraxis , 7 (4), 103-109.

• Overzicht/UvADare

• Publicatielijst Google Scholar

• Groene Hart Ziekenhuis Gouda
  Neuropsycholoog / GZ-Psycholoog i.o