Tests Commonly Used

Tests Commonly Used -Neuropsychological Examination

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Tests Commonly Used In a Neuropsychological Examination

Neuropsychologists use scientifically validated objective tests to evaluate brain functions. While neurological examination and CT, MRI, EEG, and PET scans look at the structural, physical, and metabolic condition of the brain, the neuropsychological examination is the only way to formally assess brain function. Neuropsychological tests cover the range of mental processes from simple motor performance to complex reasoning and problem solving. In almost all objective tests, quantitative results are compared with some normative standard, including data from groups of non-brain injured persons and groups of persons with various kinds of brain injury. If the norms are based on age and educational achievement, valid comparison can be made between an individual's performance and that of persons in known diagnostic categories as well as persons who do not have a diagnosis of brain injury.

Qualitative assessment of neuropsychological tests provides a look at the processes an individual may use in producing the quantitative scores. Analysis of the pattern of performance among a large number of tests is key to a neuropsychological assessment. Thus, the selection of tests used in a neuropsychological test battery should sample a wide range of functional domains. The combination of objective scores, behavioral process observations, and consistency in emerging pattern of results, along with comprehensive clinical history, constitute the art and science of neuropsychological assessment. Most neuropsychologists select a unique combination of tests focused on the diagnostic and examination questions of interest for an individual.

The following alphabetical listing includes some of the more frequently used tests used in a neuropsychological assessment. Brief descriptions indicate what each test is intended to measure. Some tests are included here that are not, strictly speaking, neuropsychological tests, but that may be used in a comprehensive examination. In order to keep test content and applications confidential to preserve their clinical usefulness, this information is restricted to general comments.

Test Name	Purpose of Test
Ammons Quick Test	This test has been used for many years to help assess premorbid 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. (e.g., Reitan-Indiana Aphasia Screening Test)
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 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 the ease with which a person can think of words that begin with a specific letter.
Cognistat (The Neurobehavioral 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.
d2 Test of Attention	This procedure measures selective attention and mental concentration.
Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System	Assesses key areas of executive function (problem-solving, thinking flexibility, fluency, planning, 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.
Finger Tapping (Oscillation) Test	This procedure measures motor speed. By examining performance on both sides of the body, inferences may be drawn regarding possible lateral brain damage.
Grooved Pegboard	This procedure measures performance speed in a fine motor task. By examining both sides of the body, inferences may be drawn regarding possible lateral brain damage.
Halstead Category Test	This test measures concept learning. It examines flexibility of thinking and openness to learning. It is considered a good measure of overall brain function. Various forms of this test exist.
Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery	A set of tests that examines language, attention, motor speed, abstract thinking, memory, and spatial reasoning is often used to produce an overall assessment of brain function. Some neuropsychologists use some or all of the original set of tests in this battery.
Hooper Visual Organization Test	This procedure examines ability to visually integrate information into whole perceptions. It is a sensitive measure of moderate to severe brain injury.
Kaplan Baycrest Neurocognitive Assessment	Assesses cognitive abilities in adults, including attention, memory, verbal fluency, spatial processing, and reasoning/conceptual shifting.
Kaufman Functional Academic Skills Test	A brief, individually administered test designed to determine performance in reading and mathematics as applied to daily life situations.
Kaufman Short Neuropsychological Assessment	Measures broad cognitive functions in adolescents and adults with mental retardation or dementia.
Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery	This is a set of several tests designed to cover a broad range of functional domains and to provide a pattern analyses of strengths and weakness across areas of brain function. The tests reflect a quantitative model of A. R. Luria's qualitative assessment scheme.
MMPI-2 (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory)	This well-known and well-respected personality assessment is often used to accompany neuropsychological tests to assess personality and emotional status that might lend understanding to reactions to neurofunctional impairment.
Memory Assessment Scales	This is a comprehensive battery of tests assessing short-term, verbal, and visual memory.
MicroCog	This computerized assessment measures nine functional cognitive areas sensitive to brain injury
Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory	A self-report assessment of personality disorders and clinical syndromes. This is sometimes used as an adjunct instrument in comprehensive neuropsychological assessment.
Mooney Problem Checklist	This instrument helps individuals express their personal problems. It covers health and physical development; home and family; morals and religion; courtship, sex, and marriage.
Multilingual Aphasia Examination	This set of subtests provides comprehensive assessment of a wide range of language disorders.
North American Reading Test	This reading test is often used to help assess premorbid intelligence, for comparison with current intelligence as measured by more comprehensive tests.
Quick Neurological Screening Test	This is a rapid assessment to identify possible neurological signs, primarily in motor, sensory, and perceptual areas.
Paced Auditory Serial Attention Test	Tests for attention deficits including concentration, speed of processing, mental calculation, and mental tracking. Sensitive for diagnosing cognitive impairment in individuals 16 and up.
Paulhus Deception Scales	This instrument measures the tendency to give socially desirable responses, useful for identifying individuals who distort their responses.
Personality Adjective Checklist	This self-report measure evaluate several personality patterns, primarily focusing on personality disorders
Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test	This procedure evaluates the ability to learn word lists. It is the forerunner of other tests of verbal learning using lists of words.
Rey Complex Figure Test	This drawing and visual memory test examines ability to construct a complex figure and remember it for later recall. It measures memory as well as visual-motor organization.
Rey 15-item Memory Test	This test is used to evaluate potential for malingering in memory.
Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test	Analyzes aspects of visuospatial ability and memory in all ages.
Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test	Evaluates impairments in everyday memory related to real life situations.
Rogers Criminal Responsibility Scale	This instrument is designed to assess the impairment of an individual at the time a crime was committed.
Rorschach Projective Technique	This familiar inkblot test is used to evaluate complex psychological dynamics. Persons with brain injury have been shown to produce certain kinds of responses that can complement other tests and help to understand personality changes associated with brain injury.
Ruff Figural Fluency Test	This visual procedure complements verbal fluency tests in assessing ability to think flexibly but using visual stimuli rather than words.
Sensory Screening Test	Various procedures include the assessment of tactile sensitivity to various objects, the ability to recognize objects by touch, and the ability to detect numbers written on the hands by touch alone. By examining both sides of the body, inferences may be drawn regarding possible lateral brain damage.
SCL-90 (Symptom Checklist 90)	This checklist evaluates the individual's subjective complaints.
Shipley Institute of Living Scale	Comparison of vocabulary knowledge and ability to figure out abstract sequential patterns has been established as a sensitive measure of general brain functioning.
Stroop Test	This brief procedure examines attention, mental speed, and mental control.
Symbol Digit Modalities Test	Screening test for children and adults to detect cognitive impairment.
Tactual Performance Test	Assesses speed of motor performance, tactile perception, spatial problem-solving, and spatial memory in all ages.
Test of Memory Malingering	This test is used to evaluate potential for malingering in memory.
Test of Memory and Learning (TOMAL)	This test for children and adolescents measures numerous aspects of memory, assessing learning, attention, and recall.
Test of Memory Malingering	For ages 16-84, this visual recognition test helps discriminate malingered from true memory impairments.
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.
Tower of London	A test for all ages, assessing higher-level problem-solving, valuable for examining executive functions and strategy planning.
Trail Making Tests A and B	These tests measure attention, visual searching, mental processing speed, and the ability to mentally control simultaneous stimulus patterns. These tests are sensitive to global brain status but are not too sensitive to minor brain injuries.
Verbal (Word) Fluency Tests (various)	There are a variety of verbal fluency tests in use. Each is designed to measure the speed and flexibility of verbal thought processes. (e.g., Controlled Oral Word Association Test; Thurstone Verbal Fluency)
Wechsler Adult Intelligence ScaleIII	This set of 13 separate "subtests" produces measures of memory, knowledge, problem solving, calculation, abstract thinking, spatial orientation, planning, and speed of mental processing. In addition to summary measures of intelligence, performance on each subtest yields implications for different neurofunctional domains. The set of tests takes about an hour or more to administer. The WAIS-III is often the foundation for a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment.
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for ChildrenIII	Comparable to the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, this procedure contains subtests that measure similar domains in children.
Wechsler Memory ScaleIII	This set of 18 separate "subtests" yields information about various kinds of memory and learning processes. Summary memory indices are provided in addition to the individual scores of the subtests. The whole set of tests takes about an hour to administer. The WMS-III provides a comprehensive assessment of memory. It is co-normed with the WAIS-III and is usually used in conjunction with it.
Wechsler Test of Adult Reading	Provides estimate of pre-morbid intellectual functioning in persons 18-89, normed with the WAIS-III and WMS-III.
Wide Range Achievement Test	Provides level of performance in reading, spelling, and written arithmetic. The reading and spelling tests are often used in estimating premorbid intellectual functioning.
Wisconsin Card Sort Test	Similar in concept to the Category Test, this procedure also measures the ability to learn concepts. It is considered a good measure of frontal lobe functioning.
Wonderlic Personnel Test	This personnel test is not a neuropsychological instrument per se, but is used to help evaluate vocational abilities and potential for comparison with other neuropsychological tests in making practical prognostic decisions.