Читать книгу Abnormal Psychology - William J. Ray - Страница 173

Neuropsychological tests have been developed to help mental health professionals assess a person’s general level of cognitive functioning. Intelligence tests, for example, are able to compare a given individual with his or her peers to determine level of functioning. The common intelligence tests, such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), have a number of subscales designed to measure verbal and performance tasks. The verbal tasks include measurements of acquired knowledge, verbal reasoning, and comprehension of verbal information. The performance tasks include nonverbal reasoning, spatial processing skills, attention to detail, and visuomotor integration.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS): a common intelligence test with a number of subscales designed to measure verbal and performance tasks

Table 4.1

Source: Frick et al. (2010), with kind permission from Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Other neuropsychological tests have been designed to assess specific types of brain functioning as well as brain damage. These include memory, attention, reasoning, emotional processing, and motor processes including inhibition of action. One advantage of traditional neuropsychological tests is that they have been given to a large number of people so that norms could be established. Thus, it is possible to know whether a 70-year-old individual is showing a normal memory decline in certain areas or if there might be the beginning of a neurocognitive disorder, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Although neuropsychological testing was initially developed to assess brain damage resulting from accidents, strokes, or war, it is now finding a use in delineating deficits in those with mental illness. Today, there is a coming together of neuropsychological tests, measures of cognitive processes in normal individuals, and brain imaging techniques. For example, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) requires that an individual sort cards into four piles. Each card has a specific shape on it, such as a circle or square, and a specific number of these shapes. Each card is also printed in a specific color. Thus, you could sort the cards by shape, by number, or by color. The person administering the test makes note of whether the individual is sorting each card correctly or not. After a number of sorts, the administrator changes the correct sort category. Individuals with frontal lobe damage have difficulty responding to changing demands. Individuals with schizophrenia also have difficulty responding to changing task requirements.

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST): an assessment instrument that requires an individual to sort cards into four piles; each card has a specific shape on it and a specific number of these shapes, and each card is printed in a specific color; thus, the cards could be sorted by shape, number, or color. The sort criteria are changed throughout the test. The purpose of the test is to measure the person’s ability to adjust to changes in sorting criteria

Continuous Performance Test (CPT): a test that measures attentional characteristics

These sisters were identical quadruplets who all developed schizophrenia by age 24. When they became subjects of study because of their shared disorder, they were given the pseudonym of the “Genain” quadruplets to protect their identity. The word genain, from Greek, translates to “bad gene.”

© ASSOCIATED PRESS

Another test that is commonly used in psychopathology research is the Continuous Performance Test (CPT), which measures attentional characteristics. In one version of the test, participants are shown a series of letters and must respond whenever a particular letter is displayed. The test then requires that the person respond when one particular letter followed by another letter is displayed. Children with ADHD have problems with this task. Thus, neuropsychological tests are also being used to understand brain processes in those with mental illness.