Page No. 134-144
Chris Piotrowski
University of West Florida, USA
The extant literature on the status of neuropsychological testing practices largely ignores
the myriad of survey-based findings of studies reported in allied professional psychology
fields. To date, a systematic analysis of neuropsychological test usage across major
mental health professions has not been conducted. To address this lapse in the research
literature, the current study presents a summary analysis, based on an extensive
literature review of published survey-based findings with regards to neuropsychological
testing, that report on assessment and test usage patterns from 1990-2016. The 36
identified survey-based or records-based studies of practice settings served as the
data pool in the current review. The analysis revealed that overall, 14 (39%) of the
36 surveys indicated ‘high’ levels of neuropsychological test usage. The predominant
tests were Wechsler Scales, visual-motor tests, Wechsler Memory Scales, HalsteadReitan Battery, Trail Making Tests, California Verbal Learning Test, and Wisconsin
Card Sorting Test. This review supports that neuropsychological tests have been, and
continue being emphasized in practice by clinical neuropsychologists, and relied on to a
moderate degree by practicing clinical and forensic psychologists, but rather neglected
by counseling and school psychologists, and professional counselors. Hence, to some
extent, practitioners in allied fields, outside of the specialty of clinical neuropsychology,
occasionally engage in neuropsychological assessment. In addition, these findings
highlight the apparent dissonance between the practical value of neuropsychological
testing evident in practice and the diminutive emphasis toward this assessment area
in pre-internship training. Finally, this review revealed three neuropsychological areas
of sparse research: a) the lack of cross-disciplinary collaboration in assessment, b)
survey-based findings regarding neurological assessment of children, and c) studies
on the scope of neuropsychological assessment, particularly in academic training, in
countries outside the USA.