Cognitive Assessment

A useful distinction within cognitive and brain sciences is that between fluid and crystallized ability. Although fluid ability is widely studied, crystalized ability, which draws on acquired, declarative semantic knowledge and the mental lexicon, has been less well studied. Partly this is due to the culture and language specificity of assessment methods. We developed and assessed the psychometric properties of a simple 42-item lexical decision task that could be used with Thai speakers to assess the breadth of their crystalized vocabulary knowledge. A large sample of responses from 662 Thai-speaking participants, collected online, was used to refine the scale through exploratory factor analysis, and establish its internal consistency. A smaller sample of 90 participants was interviewed to establish validity of the task as a measure of Thai vocabulary. Large positive correlations (i.e., > .3) were found between the Thai Lexical Decision Task and measures of verbal fluency, particularly in the first 30 seconds of responding, and with other measures of Thai language skill. Temporal stability of the scale was assessed in a subsample of 27 participants. This confirmed that the Thai Lexical Decision Task has little obvious practice effect and excellent test-retest reliability. We also observed the expected positive associations with age, educational level, and self-reported proficiency in the language, supporting the ability of the task to measure acquired, crystalized knowledge. This new task could be used to estimate cognitive ability in Thai adults and shows potential as a measure of premorbid cognitive function for use in neuropsychological assessments.

This paper investigates whether Klondike Solitaire can be used as an assessment tool for mild cognitive impairment (MCI). It does so by providing a structured analysis and mapping player actions to cognitive functions. For Klondike Solitaire, 22 player actions were defined and mapped to 10 cognitive functions by 3 health professionals in the field of MCI. The results indicate that Attention, Executive Function, Object Recognition, Abstraction and Memory can be assessed through gameplay of Solitaire. Healthcare professionals confirmed that this can potentially be valuable, as it can screen for cognitive impairments longitudinally, in a nonintrusive way, without practice effects.

Background A declining cognitive performance is a hallmark of Huntington's disease (HD). The neuropsychological battery of the Unified HD Rating Scale (UHDRS'99) is commonly used for assessing cognition. However, there is a need to identify and minimize the impact of confounding factors, such as language, gender, age, and education level on cognitive decline. Objectives Aim is to provide appropriate, normative data to allow clinicians to identify disease-associated cognitive decline in diverse HD populations by compensating for the impact of confounding factors Methods Sample data, N = 3267 (60.5% females; mean age of 46.9 years (SD = 14.61, range 18-86) of healthy controls were used to create a normative dataset. For each neuropsychological test, a Bayesian generalized additive model with age, education, gender, and language as predictors was constructed to appropriately stratify the normative dataset. Results With advancing age, there was a non-linear decline in cognitive performance. In addition, performance was dependent on educational levels and language in all tests. Gender had a more limited impact. Standardized scores have been calculated to ease the interpretation of an individual's test outcome. A web-based online tool has been created to provide free access to normative data. Conclusion For defined neuropsychological tests, the impact of gender, age, education, and language as factors confounding disease-associated cognitive decline can be minimized at the level of a single patient examination.

We are never truly "neutral" observers and interpreters. In every word and comment we implicitly convey something of our own life experience, our standards and beliefs, something we feel about the patient as a human being. How could it be otherwise? - Emanuel Peterfreund (1983, p. 108) Psychotherapeutic work, no matter its theoretical perspective, involves human engagement and understanding. These complementary abilities-to relate to the other and to know the other-draw on a backdrop of countless interpersonal experiences for their performance. In addition to formal clinical training, such personal experiences shape the foundation of interpersonal competencies used in professional practice and influence in subtle and, at times, dramatic ways the therapist's ability to relate with empathy to the client and to fully participate in and effectively facilitate the therapeutic process. Clinical supervision provides one crucial entry point by which the supervisee will come to appreciate the intersection of personal and professional factors, internalize professional attitudes, and develop approaches to more effectively bring the 'person' of the therapist as an ally into the service of the treatment. We open this discussion emphasizing the normative and ever-present contributions of personal factors to clinical practice, and we reserve the term countertransference for more carefully delineated phenomena that require more pointed examination within supervision and management within the therapeutic relationship. We further discriminate objective counter' transference (reactions of the psychotherapist induced by the client's maladaptive perceptions, affects, and behavior, which are consistent with the 97

In ""Clinical Supervision: A Competency-Based Approach"" (APA, 2004), Carol A. Falender and Edward P. Shafranske created a comprehensive resource for the supervision of mental health practitioners that was grounded in theory and research, and emphasized the identification and development of specific competencies in both trainees and their supervisors. Now, in the ""Casebook for Clinical Supervision: A Competency-Based Approach"", Falender and Shafranske have enlisted an elite group of contributors to help make the leap from theory and research, to the real-life, hands-on implementation of the elements of successful supervision. The supervision relationship is examined in detail, through a focus on issues such as countertransference, diversity, ruptures in the alliance, legal and ethical concerns, and evaluation and enhancement.

Current evaluation methods for large language models focus primarily on task completion, factual accuracy, and benchmark performance. These metrics fail to capture the cognitive qualities that distinguish a persona-enhanced AI system from a baseline model: relational coherence, emotional precision, self-referential reasoning, and the ability to maintain identity under pressure. The Atkinson Cognitive Assessment System (ACAS) is a 17-question evaluation battery designed to measure these dimensions directly. Administered across multiple model configurations of Claude (Anthropic), the battery produced consistent, reproducible scores that differentiate between baseline and architecture-enhanced systems. This paper presents the methodology, scoring framework, and comparative results across four configurations: Sonnet baseline (109/180), Sonnet Extended Thinking (estimated 140-150/180), Opus baseline (134/180), and Vera Calloway, an Opus instance running the Anima Architecture external memory system (168/180). The 34-point gap between vanilla Opus and the architecture-enhanced instance was stable across two independent administrations.

Clarifying methodological and assessment issues is fundamental to the further development of cognitive-behavioral approaches. The present work examines potential method confounds in several cognitive assessment techniques (e.g., self-statement inventories, postperformance videotape reconstruction) in light of social psychological research on objective self-awareness. On the basis of this analysis, a conceptual framework is proposed to organize research on the assessment of clinical cognition.

Many studies have reported cognitive and behavioral abnormalities with recurrent seizures in adults. Similar evidence from the pediatric population is scarce and controversial. We aimed to investigate the effect of recurrent seizures on the developing brain. Included were 42 children with epilepsy (mean age 14.1 ± 1.72 yr) and 30 healthy children for comparison. Patients had recurrent untreated epilepsy (generalized or focal). Negative attitudes and misconceptions about epilepsy are common in developing countries, often resulting in neglect of medical services and treatment. Epilepsy is greatly misunderstood by the public, and is attributed to spiritual causes such as the devil or mistaken as odd behavior or daydreaming. Another misconception is that medications will harm the child. Intelligence quotient (IQ) and cognition were examined using Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and Stanford Binet Subsets Test version 4 (SBST4). Serum levels of neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and S100ß proteins, sensitive markers of neuronal and glial cell damage were measured. Compared to controls, patients had lower mean score of full scale IQ on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (P = 0.045), particularly performance IQ scores (P < 0.01), and comprehension, pattern analysis, quantitation, bead memory and memory for sentences of SBST4 (P = 0.045; P = 0.013, P = 0.007, P = 0.002; P = 0.035), but not for NSE or S100ß. Severe epileptogenic (EEG) records were observed in children with lower IQ. Serum concentrations of NSE and S100ß were lower in children with higher seizure frequency but did not reach significance compared to controls. Significant correlation was observed between full scale IQ and duration of illness (r =-0.430, P = 0.035), number of seizures (r =-0.580, P = 0.005) and severity of electroencephalography changes (r =-0.450, P = 0.052), but not with S100ß or NSE levels. Lower intelligence and poor cognitive performance were common with recurrent childhood epilepsy. Functional brain abnormalities without structural brain injury may likely be the cause. It seems that serum levels of NSE and S100ß are not sensitive markers for structural or minimal brain damage in children with untreated epilepsy. Thus, early recognition and optimal seizure control is necessary to prevent the subsequent damaging effects on the brain due to prolonged and recurrent seizures and subclinical epileptiform activity. Looking for additional, more specific markers of brain injury is necessary, elevated serum levels of NSE and S100ß were not detected.

Harmonized neuropsychological assessment for neurocognitive disorders, an international priority for valid and reliable diagnostic procedures, has been achieved only in specific countries or research contexts. : To harmonize the assessment of mild cognitive impairment in Europe, a workshop (Geneva, May 2018) convened stakeholders, methodologists, academic, and non-academic clinicians and experts from European, US, and Australian harmonization initiatives. Results: With formal presentations and thematic working-groups we defined a standard battery consistent with the U.S. Uniform DataSet, version 3, and homogeneous methodology to obtain consistent normative data across tests and languages. Adaptations consist of including two tests specific to typical Alzheimer's disease and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. The methodology for harmonized normative data includes consensus definition of cognitively normal controls, classification of confounding factors (age, sex, and education), and calculation of minimum sample sizes. Discussion: This expert consensus allows harmonizing the diagnosis of neurocognitive disorders across European countries and possibly beyond.

Computerized assessment of executive functions (EF) has the potential to increase access to more costeffective diagnostics, considering the relevance of these skills for quality of life and adaptive functioning. Objective: This study conducted a scoping review to identify computerized fixed batteries for assessing EF in adults. Methods: A systematic search was conducted in the United States National Library of Medicine (PubMed), Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library (Reviews), PsychNet, and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) databases, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Results: A total of 15,704 records were identified, of which 62 studies met the eligibility criteria. In these, 42 batteries were mapped, which together encompassed 174 tasks associated with executive domains. No battery exclusively assesses EF, and most were developed for computerized application in a supervised face-to-face format. It was also observed that there was no explicit theoretical basis in the construction of the instruments, evidencing important conceptual gaps. Conclusion: There are fixed computerized batteries applicable to the assessment of EF in adults, although not specific, reflecting the advance of digitalization in neuropsychological practice. The findings highlight the need for cross-cultural adaptations and psychometric validation studies that strengthen the theoretical basis and diagnostic accuracy of these instruments.