Protocol for the Development of a Computerized Battery for Cross-Cultural Neuropsychological Assessment: The EMBRACED Project

Abstract

Globalization is making our world increasingly diverse. However, the field of neuropsychological assessment hasn’t addressed this diversity appropriately and people around the world are being assessed with instruments that are not culturally adapted for them. Practitioners are using tests that were originally created for Western culture(s) to evaluate patients of all demographic backgrounds. The solution is the development of computerized cross-cultural tests, but there is no established standard procedure for creating a battery that is comprehensive, modular, psychometrically robust, easy to use, free, and culturally salient. The EMBRACED battery is intended to be exactly that. The protocol for its development followed strict, evidence-based scientific methods for the determination of all its neuropsychological domains, their relevant constructs, and the best tasks to measure them; the tasks and stimuli are also computerized. The EMBRACED battery is user-friendly, cost-effective, and patient-guided. The preliminary results obtained to date show that culture has a significant effect on neuropsychological test performance, with bias in favor of Western populations. Our field has an ethical responsibility to improve our instruments, increase fairness in testing, and to fight for social justice around the world, which is precisely the aim of the EMBRACED project.