Demographic Influences on Neuropsychological Test Performance

Abstract

Abstract A primary goal of clinical neuropsychological assessment is to determine whether a given set of test results suggests brain pathology. This is done by comparing a person’s performance to available normative standards, which for most tests are based on the results of a “typical” North American sample of neurologically normal adults. Unfortunately, most neuropsychological tests have only a single set of norms that do not include adjustment for the demographic characteristics of the individual being considered. This state of affairs is, quite clearly, a major impediment to adequate clinical assessment of many patients. Consider, for example, a 60-yearold woman with a grade school education, whose first language was Spanish and who began learning English at age 15. It would be quite inappropriate to compare this patient’s performances on most neurobehavioral tests with those of the average adult in North America.

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