NORMATIVE DATA FOR NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS WITH AFRICAN AMERICANS

拟议研究的目的是为非裔美国成年人开发规范的神经心理学测试，这些非裔美国成年人通常处于社会经济结构（SES）的低端，那里可能有更大的创伤性脑损伤（TBI）风险。研究表明，社会经济地位较低的人更有可能遭受脑外伤。创伤性脑损伤会产生各种认知和行为缺陷，这些缺陷可以通过神经心理学测试来识别，这有助于制定特定的康复策略，使个体能够在获得性脑损伤后继续发挥职业和社会功能。标准化测试的一个长期存在的问题是缺乏足够的非欧裔美国人的规范性测试数据。跨文化心理学家和心理测量心理学家建议，理想情况下，应该对不同的种族群体使用单独的规范数据，就像对其他人口统计学因素（如年龄、性别等）所做的那样。本研究拟对60名非裔美国人创伤性脑损伤后急性期患者和100名非裔美国人骨科和脊髓患者进行一系列神经心理学测试，这些测试通常用于评估定向、注意力集中、言语和语言、知觉过程、记忆和新学习。本临床研究的目的是为临床评估非裔美国患者提供规范性数据。

The purpose of the proposed study is to develop normative neuropsychological tests for African-American adults that are generally over-represented at the lower end of the socioeconomic structure (SES) where there may be greater risk of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Studies have shown that individuals of lower SES have a greater likelihood of sustaining a TBI. TBI produces a variety of cognitive and behavioral deficits that can be identified through neuropsychological testing which can assist in the development of specific rehabilitative strategies that will allow individuals to continue to function occupationally and socially following acquired brain injury. One long standing issue with standardized testing has been the lack of adequate normative test data for non-European-Americans. Cross-cultural psychological and psychometric psychologists suggest that ideally separate normative data should be used for different racial group as in done with other demographic factors (e.g., age, gender, etc.). This study proposes to administer a series of neuropsychological tests commonly used to evaluate orientation,, attention-concentration, speech and language, perceptual processes, and memory and new learning, to 60 post- acute African-American patients with TBI and 100 African-American orthopedic and spinal cord patients. The purpose of this clinical study is to develop normative data to be used in clinical setting when evaluating African-American patients.