Areas of Expertise
Naturalistic assessment of cognitive impairments
Treatment of cognitive impairments of necessity requires attention to two levels of assessment. How are the fundamental cognitive processes being targeted for treatment altered by the intervention? and What is the impact of treatment on complex naturalistic tasks that depend on the cognitive processes of interest? NCRRN investigators (Buxbaum, Hart, Schwartz, Whyte) have particular expertise in assessing the relationship between underlying cognitive processes and real world behavior, using innovative naturalistic assessment tools.
Annotated Citations
Naturalistic Action
- Schwartz, M.F., Segal, M., Veramonti, T., Ferraro, M., & Buxbaum, L.J. (2002). The Naturalistic Action Test: A standardized assessment for everyday-action impairment. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 12 (4), 311-339.
The Naturalistic Action Test (NAT) is the product of ten years of research conducted at Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute in Philadelphia, which showed that recovering stroke and brain injury patients and those with progressive dementia are highly prone to errors of action when performing routine activities of daily living. This paper summarizes the research that led to the NAT and describes its psychometric properties. For information on how to purchase the NAT, readers should contact Pearson Assessment (www.pearson-uk.com).
- Hart T, Giovannetti T, Montgomery M, Schwartz M: Awareness of errors in naturalistic action following traumatic brain injury. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation 13:16-27, 1998.
This paper describes one of the few validated methods of measuring error awareness objectively through structured observations. Using this method, it was shown that people with TBI were less aware of errors in naturalistic tasks and corrected those errors less often than controls, even when the error rate was the same. (TH)
Attention in TBI
- Whyte J, Schuster K, Polansky M, Adams J, Coslet HB: Frequency and duration of inattentive behavior after traumatic brain injury: effects of distraction, task and practice. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society 6:1-11, 2000.
This article describes a videotape-based method of assessing off-task behavior in individuals with TBI. (JW)
- Whyte J, Hart T, Bode RK, Malec JF: The Moss attention rating scale (MARS) for traumatic brain injury: Initial psychometric assessment. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 84(2):268-276, 2003.
- Hart T, Whyte J, Millis S, Bode R, Malec J, Nakase-Richardson R, Hammond F: Dimensions of disordered attention in traumatic brain injury: further validation of the Moss attention rating scale. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 87:647-655, 2006.
These articles describe the development and validation of the Moss Attention Rating Scale (MARS), an observational rating scale intended to measure attention deficits after TBI particularly in individuals who are unable to complete formal neuropsychological tests. (JW)