Neuropsychological Assessment

Definition

Neuropsychological tests are specifically designed tasks used to measure a Psychological function known to be linked to a particular brain structure or pathway. They are usually involving the systematic administration of clearly defined procedures in a formal environment.

Types of Neuropsychological Tests

Ammon’s Quick Test. This test has been used for many years to help assess pre-morbid intelligence. It is a passive response picture vocabulary test.

Aphasia Tests (various). Several aphasia and language tests examine level of competency in receptive and expressive language skills. (Reitan-Indiana AAphasis Screening Tests)

Beck Depression or Anxiety Scales: These scales provide quick assessment of subjective experience of symptoms related to depression or anxiety.

Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test:  This test evaluates visual-perceptual and visual-motor functioning, yielding possible signs of brain dysfunction, emotional problems and developmental maturity.

Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination: Broad diagnosis of language impairment in adults.

Boston Naming Test: Assessing the ability to name the pictures of objects through spontaneous responses and need for various types of cueing. Inferences can be drawn regarding language facility and possible localization of cerebral damage.

California Verbal Learning Test:  This procedure examines several aspects of verbal learning, organization and memory. Forms for adults and children.

Cognitive Symptom Checklists:  Self-evaluation of areas of cognitive impairment for adolescents and adults.

Continuous Performance Test. Tests that require intense attention to a visual motor task are used in assessing sustained attention and freedom from distractibility. (E.g. Vigil, Connors Continuous Performance Test).

Controlled Oral Word Association Test. Different forms of this procedure exist. Most frequently used for assessing verbal fluency and ease with which a person can think of words that begins with a specific letter.

Cognistat (The Neurological Cognitive Status Examination).This screening test examines language, memory, arithmetic, attention, judgment and reasoning. It is typically used in screening individuals who cannot tolerate more complicated or lengthier neuropsychological tests.

Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System. Assesses key areas of executive function (problem solving, thinking flexibility, fluency, planning, and deductive reasoning) in both spatial and verbal modalities, normed for ages 8-89.

Dementia Rating Scale. Provides measurement of attention, initiation, construction, conceptualization and memory to assess cognitive status in older adults with cortical impairment.

Digit Vigilance Test. A commonly used test of attention, alertness, and mental processing capacity using a rapid visual tracking task.

Figural Fluency Test. Different forms of this procedure exist, evaluating nonverbal mental flexibility. Often compared with tests of verbal fluency.

 Rorschach Projective Technique. This familiar inkblot test is used to evaluate complex psychological dynamics. Person with brain injury have been shown to produce certain kinds of responses that can complement other tests a help to understand personality changes associated with brain injury.

Test of Memory and Learning (TOMAL).This test for children and adolescence and measures numerous aspects of memory, assessing learning, attention and recall.

Thematic Apperception Test. This projective test is most commonly used to examine personality characteristics that may aid in understanding psychological or emotional adjustment to brain injury.

Wechsler Test of Adult Reading. Provides estimate of pre morbid intellectual functioning in persons 18 to 89, normed with the WAIS-III and WMS-III.

Word Memory Test. A validity procedure designed to detect response bias that might indicate exaggeration of impairment or symptom feigning.

Test Batteries. The test battery serves as a screening device for CPS case managers to help determine the need for additional services and assist in decision making regarding their clients. The test battery consists of several paper and pencil tests suitable for adults and adolescents with at least a 6th grade reading level. They may Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory 2 (MMPI-2) or MACI (adolescent), Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory (SASSI), Adult or adolescence Questionnaire (contain sentence completion, questions regarding parenting knowledge and skills and family background).  

Advantages of Neuropsychological test:

            It can clarify the reason for the difficulties and will help in proving a foundation from an effective treatment plan. It is important to keep in mind that psychological testing is only one part of the assessment process which may include information provided by physicians, teachers, parents and counselors.

            Testing may also be helpful when there is ongoing discrepancy between parents and the school regarding the reason for a child’s difficulties and behavior. Testing can provide a new understanding about why a child is experiencing difficulties in school.

            One of the main advantages of the testing is that the results can be empirically documented; therefore, the test scores can be shown to have a relative degree of validity and reliability, as well as results which are generalized and replicable. This is often contrasted with grades on the school transcript, which was assigned by individual teachers. It may be difficult to account for differences in educational culture across school, difficulty of a given teacher’s curriculum, differences in teaching styles, and techniques and biases that affect the grading. This makes standardized tests useful for admissions purposes in higher education, where a school is trying to compare students from across the nation or across the world.

            Psychologists, counselors and therapists use psychological assessment as a supplement to clinical interview. Through testing, a lot of information is gathered in a relatively short period of time. Neuropsychological testing may be indicated in persons with epilepsy or hydrocephalus. Neuropsychological testing is also used to assess post-surgical changes in cognitive functioning to guide further treatment services.

Disadvantages of Neuropsychological test:

            Lack of correct training is also a significant danger in the use of psychometric testing or neuropsychological testing.

            Another important danger with neuropsychological testing is the use of questionnaires that tries to assess person ability or skills in a particular area.

            It is difficult to accurately estimate the percentage of clinicians who employ each of these assessments’ approaches in a fixed versus flexible manner. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Heinz Hartmann Ego Psychology and the Mechanisms of Adaptation

  Heinz Hartmann devoted considerable time to the study of the Ego's Defenses and their functions from the perspective of the Adaptation. However, he seems not to have expanded on the defenses explained by Freud. The ego mobilizes defenses to protect itself from four types of dangers including conflicts among: ·          The id, ego, and super ego conflict. ·          Conflict in interpersonal relations. ·          Conflict in social norms. ·          Conflict in response to trauma. Mechanism of Adaptation: Heinz Hartmann described the "Mechanisms of Adaptation" that are more or less firmly established in the ego of an adult and always run to the same course unconsciously, just as Anna Freud describes the "Defense Mechanisms". These mechanisms are established in the ego to defend against un-described or disturbin...
Read more

Basic Concepts in Experimental Psychology

  Perception                Perception can be defined as our recognition and interpretation of sensory   information. Perception also includes how we respond to the information. We can think of perception as a process where we take in sensory information from our environment and use that information in order to interact with our environment. Perception allows us to take the sensory information in and make it into something meaningful. Cognition Cognition is a term referring to the mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension. These processes include thinking, knowing, remembering, judging and problem-solving. These are higher-level functions of the brain and encompass language, imagination, perception, and planning. The earliest definition of cognition was presented in the first textbook on cognitive psychology published in 1967. According to Neisser, cognition is "those processes by which the sensory input i...
Read more

Assessment techniques by George Kelly

 The Interview Kelly’s primary assessment technique was the interview. As he put it, “If you don’t know what is going on in a person’s mind, ask him; he may tell you!” (1958, p. 330). Adopting what he called a “credulous attitude,” Kelly accepted the client’s words at face value, believing this was the best way to determine the person’s constructs. He also recognized that a person might deliberately lie or distort the reported version of events. However, what the client said must be respected, even if not always fully believed. Self-Characterization Sketches: Another technique used to assess a construct system is to have the person write a self characterization sketch. Kelly’s instructions to the client were as follows. “I want you to write a character sketch of [client’s name] just as if he were the principal character in a play. Write it as it might be written by a friend who knew him very intimately and very sympathetically, perhaps better than anyone ever really could know h...
Read more