Neuropsychological test

Neuropsychological tests are specifically designed tasks used to measure a psychological function known to be linked to a particular brain structure or pathway. They usually involve the systematic administration of clearly defined procedures in a formal environment. Neuropsychological tests are typically administered to a single person working with an examiner in a quiet office environment, free from distractions. As such, it can be argued that neuropsychological tests at times offer an estimate of a person's peak level of cognitive performance. Neuropsychological tests are a core component of the process of conducting neuropsychological assessment.

Most neuropsychological tests in current use are based on traditional psychometric theory. In this model, a person's raw score on a test is compared to a large general population normative sample, that should ideally be drawn from a comparable population to the person being examined. Normative studies frequently provide data stratified by age, level of education, and/or ethnicity, where such factors have been shown by research to affect performance on a particular test. This allows for a person's performance to be compared to a suitable control group, and thus provide a fair assessment of their current cognitive functioning.

One popular test battery is the Halstead-Reitan Test Battery. The following list includes tests from it, and other commonly-used tests.

List of neuropsychological tests

 * California Verbal Learning Test
 * Controlled word association task (COWAT or FAS)
 * Continuous Performance Task (CPT)
 * Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS)
 * Hayling and Brixton tests
 * Iowa gambling task
 * Lexical decision task
 * Memory Assessment Scales (MAS)
 * MCI Screen
 * Mini mental state examination (MMSE)
 * Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT)
 * Rey-Osterreith Complex Figure
 * Stanford-Binet IQ test
 * Stroop task
 * Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA&reg;)
 * Tower of London Test
 * Trail-Making Test (TMT) or Trails A & B
 * Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS IQ test)
 * Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS)
 * Wisconsin card sorting task (WCST)