Effort Testing In Child Cognitive and Neuropsychological Testing

Abstract

Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com been shown to provide inconsistent effort on various tests and assessments. Considerable research suggests that behavioral observations do not reliably allow a clinician to know if a full effort was provided, except for extremely obvious cases. Though most psychologists and neuropsychologists administer effort tests as part of their evaluation procedures, many who work with children continue to feel this is unneeded. A consequence of this situation is that inadequate effort on testing can result in an abnormal score profile and perhaps incorrect conclusions regarding impairments and diagnoses. Some empirical research [1] has found the when neuropsychologists assess children that were instructed to malinger, the neuropsychologists were inclined to believe that adequate effort was provided. Specifically, 78% to 83% of neuropsychologists in these studies interpreted malingering children’s test scores as impaired and reported a high level of confidence in their conclusions.