In an effort to identify four-subtest Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III) short forms valid for estimating Full-Scale IQ (FSIQ) among individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), seven tetrad versions of the WAIS-III were evaluated in a convenience sample of patients referred for neuropsychological assessment (n = 176). Estimated FSIQ scores were compared to actual FSIQ scores via correlation analyses, repeated-measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs), and frequency analyses. All short form-estimated FSIQ scores correlated highly with actual scores (all rs > .91, ps < .001). Repeated-measures ANOVAs identified no significant differences between actual and short form-estimated FSIQ scores for two of the seven short forms. These same two short forms had the highest percentage of scores within ±5 points of actual FSIQ scores (75.6% and 71.6%). Thus, two tetrad versions were consistently superior to others in accuracy of estimating FSIQ; these may be helpful when time constraints or other issues necessitate use of an abbreviated battery for estimating FSIQ among individuals with TBI.

The aim of this study was to track the evolution of cognitive decline in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients 1 year after baseline testing. Thirty-three PD patients, divided according to three previously determined subgroups based on their initial cognitive performance, and a healthy comparison group were reassessed after a 1-year interval. Participants were assessed in the following five domains: Executive Function, Problem Solving, Working Memory/Attention, Memory, and Visuospatial Ability. The PD groups differed on the domains of Executive Function, Problem Solving, and Working Memory, with the most severe deficits being evident for the group that had previously shown the greatest level of impairment. Increased cognitive problems were also associated with decreased functioning in activities of daily living. The most severely impaired group had evidence of global cognitive decline, possibly reflecting a stage of preclinical dementia.

The current investigation sought to replicate and extend the findings of Green (in press), which demonstrated superior sensitivity of the Nonverbal Medical Symptom Validity Test (NV-MSVT) relative to the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) in the detection of suboptimal effort during neuropsychological assessment. Nearly twice as many examinees failed the NV-MSVT than the TOMM. Profile analyses of the NV-MSVT demonstrated patterns suggestive of inconsistent effort in those who failed the NV-MSVT but passed the TOMM. A classification analysis employing the Word Memory Test and Medical Symptom Validity Test as external criteria for poor effort showed that the NV-MSVT is substantially more sensitive to poor effort than the TOMM and maintains an acceptable false-positive rate. Overall, results closely matched those of the Green (in press) study and extend the evidence that the NV-MSVT possesses better sensitivity to poor effort than the TOMM.

A repeated observation during memory assessment with the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) is that patients who spontaneously employ a memory rehearsal strategy by repeating the word list more than once achieve better scores than patients who only repeat the word list once. This observation led to concern about the ability of the standard test procedure of RAVLT and similar tests in eliciting the best possible recall scores. The purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that a rehearsal recall strategy of repeating the word list more than once would result in improved scores of recall on the RAVLT. We report on differences in outcome after standard administration and after experimental administration on Immediate and Delayed Recall measures from the RAVLT of 50 patients. The experimental administration resulted in significantly improved scores for all the variables employed. Additionally, it was found that patients who failed effort screening showed significantly poorer improvement on Delayed Recall compared with those who passed the effort screening. The general clear improvement both in raw scores and T-scores demonstrates that recall performance can be significantly influenced by the strategy of the patient or by small variations in instructions by the examiner.

Critical factors affecting traumatic brain injury (TBI) outcome in children and adolescents are explored with an emphasis on an examination of age at injury as a predictor of memory functioning. Age at injury and other injury-related and demographic predictors (i.e., severity, time postinjury, gender, and socioeconomic status [SES]) of memory and achievement outcome were examined in 65 children and adolescents post-TBI compared to 65 age-matched noninjured controls. Although robust findings have been found for age at injury as a general predictor of outcome, age was not found to be a significant predictor of memory functioning following pediatric TBI. Structural equation modeling suggests that the most parsimonious model of post-TBI outcome contains two causally related latent variables: one defined by gender, SES, injury severity, and age at injury, and one defined by general cognitive functioning.

In a population of inpatients, individuals were observed to continually score in the impaired range on the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) without exhibiting other signs of frontal-lobe damage. Investigations were undertaken to determine if the subtest structure, demographic factors, or general cognitive functioning may be responsible for patients’ poor performance on the FAB overall. Participants were inpatients at the Ann Arbor Veterans Hospital who were administered a standard neuropsychological screening battery. This battery included the FAB, among other tests, as part of regular clinical care. Included in these study analyses were 292 patients with a mean age of 67.27 years (SD = 12.41). Descriptive analyses revealed that 63.7% of patients scored in the impaired range on the FAB based on the criteria set forth by Dubois, Slachevsky, and Litvan (2000). Analyses of individual subtest performance failed to find any single test that would characterize participants’ poor performance overall. Nonetheless, the total FAB score was related to age, general cognitive functioning, and premorbid estimates of intellectual functioning. The internal reliability also was found to be lower than that reported previously. While the FAB may measure frontal-lobe functions, it appears to be influenced by a multitude of other demographic and neuropsychological factors.

Clinical differentiation between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and depression is often difficult due to symptom overlap and similar clinical presentation. Concise and accurate diagnostic tests have been of interest for many years. Furthermore, with the continued growth of the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory, there has been an emergence of measures such as the Woodcock-Johnson-III Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ-III COG), which are being more commonly used in clinical practice yet have not been fully evaluated in terms of their efficacy in various domains of clinical practice. This study investigated the predictive and diagnostic properties of the WJ-III COG as a CHC-based test in differentiating between AD and depression in the elderly population. A discriminative function used in the study was able to correctly classify 89.02% of cases using six areas of the CHC framework. The variables that had the highest predictive weights were: long-term retrieval, fluid reasoning, processing speed, and working memory. The main implication is that a theory-based approach is crucial in the support of differential diagnosis and in decreasing the length of assessment for elderly populations.

The Clock-Drawing Test (CDT) is widely used in clinical practice for the screening of dementia. However, neural activity during real clock drawing has not been investigated due to motion artifacts. In the present study, we examined brain activity during real clock drawing using multichannel near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). We measured hemoglobin concentration changes in the prefrontal and temporal surface areas during clock drawing using 52-channel NIRS. Data obtained from 37 right-handed healthy volunteers were analyzed. We found significant increases in oxy-Hb in more than 96.2% of the channels (false-discovery rate corrected, p < .025). The time required for CDT performance showed a negative correlation with changes in oxy-Hb in the prefrontal region (r = −.529, p = .002). The mean value for oxy-Hb changes was higher in the left hemisphere in 20 subjects (54%) and in the right hemisphere in 17 subjects (46%). The NIRS/CDT combination is acceptable as a clinical tool, as the method has the advantages of direct measurement of cortical activation with high temporal resolution. Our results confirm the aspects of the CDT involving the frontal-lobe battery.