word lists

Neuropsychological Terms: Test Descriptions

16 PF Questionnaire (Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire)

Used to evaluate the normal adult personality. Sixteen primary personality traits are measured including levels of assertiveness, emotional maturity, self-sufficiency, shrewdness, anxiety, tension, rigidity, and neuroticism. Used for clinical evaluation, psychological research on personality, personnel selection and placement, educational guidance and marriage counseling. Age: 16+ years.

ACER Advanced Test B40

A group test of general ability including both numerical and verbal reasoning. Age: 15+ years.

ACER Advanced Tests AL/AQ

Individual or group test designed to measure general intellectual ability at advanced secondary and tertiary levels. Linguistic and quantitative scholastic ability are measured. Age: 15+ years.

Adjective Check List

Assesses self-concept. Provides list of 300 adjectives arranged alphabetically, from absent-minded to zany. The respondent marks all the adjectives he considers to be descriptive of himself. Persons marking many tend to be described as active and enthusiastic; those marking few as quiet, reserved, and cautious.

Bayley Scales of Infant Development

Represents a revision and standardization of the California First-Year Mental Scale, used in early stages of the Berkeley Growth Study, Bayley scales are applicable from birth to 15 months, measures varying stages of growth at each age level, supplemented by extensive longitudinal data on groups of infants.

Bayley Scales of Infant Development - Second Edition (BSID-II)

Updated 1993 - As with previous edition, the BSID-II consists of three scales used to diagnose developmental delay and plan intervention strategies: Mental Scale and Motor Scale for assessment of the current level of cognitive, language, personal-social, fine and gross motor development; Behavior Rating Scale (formerly called the Infant Behavior Record) assesses behavior during testing. Changes from the previous BSID version: Extended the age range from 1 month to 42 months (previously 15 months) of age with new items applying to the expanded range; redesign of stimulus materials with color added; updated normative data; data collected on children with high-incidence clinical diagnoses (Down syndrome, prematurity, prenatal drug exposure). See BSID-II (Nancy Bayley).

Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt (Bender-Gestalt)

Primarily a copying test. In this test, nine sample designs are presented one at a time on cards. The subject is instructed to copy each design, with the sample before him. Shows a wide variety of intellectual and emotional disorders.

Benton Visual Retention Test

10 cards, each consisting of one or more simple geometric designs. Card is exposed for 10 seconds, subject must draw what he saw immediately after its removal. Test requires spatial conception, immediate recall, visuomotor reproduction. Used for detecting brain injury in children.

Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale

Tests used to gauge intellectual capacity. Comprises a series of questions and problems that are grouped for applicability to ages up to 16. Some are verbal, others require only recognition of form or manual skills. Scores are in terms of mental age. There are other forms to these tests and the one most used in U.S. schools is the Stanford-Binet.

Blacky Pictures

Projective technique test, a psychodynamic instrument.

California Psychological Inventory (CPI)

Specifically for 13 year old and up, consists of 480 items to be answered true or false, assesses test-taking attitudes, also measures personality dimensions such as dominance, sociability, self-acceptance, responsibility, socialization, self-control, achievement via conformance achievement via independence and femininity. One of the best personality inventories.

Draw-A-Person Projective Technique

Projective test used to assess personality. Person is required to draw a peron of either sex, then to draw one of the other sex. These figured reportedly project the person's feelings through his perception of body images. (Also called Figure-Drawing Test.)

Full-Range Picture-Vocabulary Test

Easy-to-use, reliable intelligence test based on verbal comprehension, normed for 2 through adult. Takes 5 to 10 minutes to administer. Person taking test does not have to read or write. Useful in testing physically handicapped and aphasics.

Goldstein-Scheerer Tests of Abstract and Concrete Behavior

Psychological test inquiring into aptitudes and interests. Reveals weaknesses in concept formation and abstract thinking, useful in determination between brain damage and schizophrenia. Hanfmann-Kasanin Test is also used for this same purpose.

Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test

Subject draws human figure. Interpretation is based on whether the subject draws the whole figure or just parts, which parts are neglected, which parts were given more attention. This gives clues to whether thinking is abstract or concrete. Test is named for Florence Goodenough & Dale Harris.

Inpatient Multidimensional Psychiatric Scale (IMPS)

Systemized series of initial questions posed to patients upon admission to mental institutions. Enables immediate placement into psychotic types...hostile-paranoid, excited-hostile, excited-grandiose, intropunitive, disorganized, retarded, not complete list of categories. Terms used are descriptive of attitude and behavior rather than clinical types, schizophrenia, manic-depressive, etc.

Internal State Scale

A self-report instrument for assessment of the severity of manic and depressive symptoms; consists of four subscales: activation, well-being, perceived conflict, depression index.

Kahn Test of Symbol Arrangement (KTSA)

A three-dimensional projective test. Subject is provided with plastic objects in different shapes and colors. Method of identification gives clues to psychosexual development, indicating childishness, regression, maturity, etc.

Kent Test

Ten oral questions which provide a rapid estimate of IQ.

Mini-Mental Status Exam (MMSE) of Folstein

One of the screening mental status tests. A perfect score on the Folstein is 30. Each correct answer there is given one point. There are five areas of mental status tested on it: (1) Orientation; (2) Registration; (3) Attention and calculation; (4) Recall; (5) Language. Its sensitivity may decline with patients whose educational level is below the 9th grade and it may miss frontal lobe dementia. With any score below 17, consider the diagnosis of probable dementia. With permission of Richard Rathe, MD, University of Florida.

Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS)

Evaluates ten areas of depressive symptomatology: apparent sadness, reported sadness, inner tension, reduced sleep, reduced appetite, concentration difficulties, lassitude, inability to feel, pessimistic thoughts, suicidal thoughts. Each area rated on a seven-point scale (0-6).

Rorschach Psychodiagnostic Test (or Rorschach projective technique)

This is the inkblot test (pronounced roar shock). It is based on the characteristic differences in perception and interpretation of pictorial form by normal persons and those suffering from hysteria, schizophrenia, and other mental disorders. There are ten inkblots, five of which are in black and white, three in black and red, and two multicolored. Score is based on whether response is to the "whole" of what is seen in the inkblots or to the "parts." It is a reliable method to uncover signs of brain damage and neurologic pathology. Bizarre responses may only indicate creativity or capriciousness or may indicate autistic thinking or a schizoid tendency.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Projective diagnostic technique which presents to subject 31 pictures that depict problems in interpersonal relationships. Subject is to tell a story about what he sees. Areas targeted are: main theme, hero or heroine, fixing or blame. Seeks to uncover dynamics of personality.

Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT)

Achievement test that measures ability to read, write, and use arithmetic. Results are matched with criteria for intelligence-rating group.

Yesavage Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS)

Simple scale developed to diagnose depression in older persons; also referred to as Yesavage-Brink or Brink-Yesavage Geriatric Depression Scale. Ref: Yesavage GDS.

Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS)

An 11-item clinician-rated scale to assess the degree of manic symptomatology; range: 0 to 60, with 60 the maximum score.