BCP Neuropsychological & Cognitive Tools 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: On the Stroop Color-Word Test, the interference condition score primarily reflects which cognitive construct?
- Psychomotor speed
- Response inhibition and selective attention (Correct answer)
- Verbal learning rate
- Spatial navigation
Correct answer: Response inhibition and selective attention
The Stroop interference condition requires suppressing the habitual reading response to name ink colors, measuring response inhibition and selective attention.
Question 2: Which instrument is specifically designed to assess attention across sustained, selective, alternating, and divided domains in a single battery?
- WAIS-IV
- Test of Everyday Attention (TEA) (Correct answer)
- Halstead-Reitan Battery
- Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory
Correct answer: Test of Everyday Attention (TEA)
The TEA was designed to measure multiple attentional components — sustained, selective, alternating, and divided — using ecologically grounded tasks.
Question 3: The Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT) FAS version requires the examinee to generate words beginning with F, A, and S in separate 60-second trials. This measures:
- Semantic fluency
- Phonemic fluency (Correct answer)
- Confrontation naming
- Auditory working memory
Correct answer: Phonemic fluency
The FAS COWAT measures phonemic (letter) fluency by asking examinees to generate words starting with specified letters rather than from semantic categories.
Question 4: Which score on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) BEST captures a patient's overall learning efficiency across all five trials?
- Trial 5 raw score
- Total learning score (sum of Trials 1–5) (Correct answer)
- Recognition hit rate
- Retroactive interference index
Correct answer: Total learning score (sum of Trials 1–5)
The RAVLT total learning score (sum across Trials 1–5) reflects cumulative learning efficiency over repeated exposures to the word list.
Question 5: A clinician notes that a patient's RAVLT retroactive interference score is markedly elevated. This indicates the patient has trouble with:
- Encoding new information initially
- Protecting previously learned material from new learning (Correct answer)
- Recognizing targets among distractors
- Phonemic word retrieval
Correct answer: Protecting previously learned material from new learning
High retroactive interference means that learning List B impairs recall of List A, reflecting vulnerability of stored material to subsequent learning.
Question 6: The Continuous Performance Test (CPT) is primarily used in neuropsychological assessment to measure:
- Intelligence quotient
- Sustained and selective attention with vigilance (Correct answer)
- Memory consolidation over time
- Language comprehension
Correct answer: Sustained and selective attention with vigilance
CPTs measure the ability to maintain attention and vigilance over time while responding selectively to targets and inhibiting responses to non-targets.
Question 7: Which of the following BEST describes the purpose of the Grooved Pegboard Test in a neuropsychological battery?
- Assessing verbal abstract reasoning
- Measuring fine motor dexterity and psychomotor speed (Correct answer)
- Evaluating sustained auditory attention
- Testing visuoconstructive planning
Correct answer: Measuring fine motor dexterity and psychomotor speed
The Grooved Pegboard requires inserting keyed pegs into randomly oriented holes, measuring fine motor dexterity and speed for each hand separately.
BCP Neuropsychological & Cognitive Tools 3
On the Stroop Color-Word Test, the interference condition score primarily reflects which cognitive construct?