Beyond Stealing Cookies: Validation of Novel Picture Description and Delayed Recall Task Stimuli for Automated Cognitive Assessment from Speech.

By Oliver Xue, Shaan Rai, Ruairí Moore, Iona Eldhose, Johnny Tam, Christine Weaver, Oliver Watts, Siddharthan Chandran, Suvankar Pal

EMS300 Student Conference 2026

Slide 1: Beyond Stealing Cookies: Validation of Novel Picture Description and Delayed Recall Task Stimuli for Automated Cognitive Assessment from Speech.. A full description follows.

Summary

The presentation discusses the validation of novel picture description and delayed recall task stimuli aimed at enhancing automated cognitive assessments from speech. It highlights the limitations of traditional methods, such as cultural bias and limited complexity in existing tasks. A consensus framework was developed to create diverse images, tested with participants including those with Alzheimer’s and Mild Cognitive Impairment. Results indicated that these novel images elicited longer descriptions and improved predictive accuracy for cognitive status, suggesting their potential clinical utility in cognitive assessments.