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Review
. 2008 Sep;18(3):184-93.
doi: 10.1007/s11065-008-9067-9. Epub 2008 Sep 24.

Measurement in cross-cultural neuropsychology

Otto Pedraza  1 , Dan Mungas
Affiliations
Review

Measurement in cross-cultural neuropsychology

Otto Pedraza et al. Neuropsychol Rev. 2008 Sep.

Abstract

The measurement of cognitive abilities across diverse cultural, racial, and ethnic groups has a contentious history, with broad political, legal, economic, and ethical repercussions. Advances in psychometric methods and converging scientific ideas about genetic variation afford new tools and theoretical contexts to move beyond the reflective analysis of between-group test score discrepancies. Neuropsychology is poised to benefit from these advances to cultivate a richer understanding of the factors that underlie cognitive test score disparities. To this end, the present article considers several topics relevant to the measurement of cognitive abilities across groups from diverse ancestral origins, including fairness and bias, equivalence, diagnostic validity, item response theory, and differential item functioning.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Diagnostic test characteristics.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Percent impairment among African American adults when using Caucasian versus African American norms. Note. AA = African American, Attn = Attention, VerMem = Verbal memory, VisMem = Visual memory, Perc = Visuoperception, Constr = Visuoconstruction, ProbSolv = Problem solving. Data courtesy of John A. Lucas, Ph.D.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Item characteristic curves of a sample item with uniform (a) or nonuniform (b) differential item functioning.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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MeSH terms