Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Abstract/Artist Statement
Objective: Neuropsychological test security is vital to the validity of assessment. Previous research in our lab has shown that 71% of participants use the Internet to prepare for neuropsychological evaluations (Kimpton, 2015). We investigated the availability of information related to neuropsychological tests on the Internet, a topic that has received little attention in the research literature.
Participants and Methods: First, we decided a priori that we would not reveal the terms used in this Internet search, as to not contribute to the problem of threatened test security. We used the Internet search engine “Google” to begin a search using a general question that a person with no neuropsychological expertise would use to access initial results. We obtained 899,000 results for this question. We decided that of these results, we would select from the first five results. One link provided us with a list of 52 commonly used neuropsychological tests. This list also included information about the type of cognitive information that the test was meant to assess. Lastly, we searched for these tests on Google Images and YouTube in order to investigate the extent of the information available.
Results: The protocols for 43% of the 52 tests were available on Google Images. At least partial administration demonstrations were available on YouTube for 54% of the 52 neuropsychological tests. These demonstrations revealed the test protocols and basic strategy of the tests.
Conclusions: A substantial amount of information regarding neuropsychological tests is available on Google Images and YouTube, threatening the validity of these tests. It is recommended that professional neuropsychological associations begin to develop guidelines regarding appropriate content for websites and identify and continuously monitor websites that contain threatening information.
Mentor Name
Stuart Hall, Ph.D.
A Significant Threat to Neuropsychological Test Validity
Objective: Neuropsychological test security is vital to the validity of assessment. Previous research in our lab has shown that 71% of participants use the Internet to prepare for neuropsychological evaluations (Kimpton, 2015). We investigated the availability of information related to neuropsychological tests on the Internet, a topic that has received little attention in the research literature.
Participants and Methods: First, we decided a priori that we would not reveal the terms used in this Internet search, as to not contribute to the problem of threatened test security. We used the Internet search engine “Google” to begin a search using a general question that a person with no neuropsychological expertise would use to access initial results. We obtained 899,000 results for this question. We decided that of these results, we would select from the first five results. One link provided us with a list of 52 commonly used neuropsychological tests. This list also included information about the type of cognitive information that the test was meant to assess. Lastly, we searched for these tests on Google Images and YouTube in order to investigate the extent of the information available.
Results: The protocols for 43% of the 52 tests were available on Google Images. At least partial administration demonstrations were available on YouTube for 54% of the 52 neuropsychological tests. These demonstrations revealed the test protocols and basic strategy of the tests.
Conclusions: A substantial amount of information regarding neuropsychological tests is available on Google Images and YouTube, threatening the validity of these tests. It is recommended that professional neuropsychological associations begin to develop guidelines regarding appropriate content for websites and identify and continuously monitor websites that contain threatening information.