Commentary on Levels of Education and Normative Data in Neuropsychological Tests

Abstract

One of the aims of neuropsychological assessment is the identification and classification of cognitive status. In this endeavor it is fundamental to compare the individual test score to scores obtained from a normative population. There is evidence that demographic factors exert influence on performance of neuropsychological tests [13]. A variety of studies have consistently reported negative correlations between different neuropsychological test scores and years of education, healthy adults with more years of schooling surpass those with lower in diverse cognitive tests [4,5]. Without appropriate knowledge about the impact of years of schooling on neuropsychological tests, false positive attributions may be routinely made [6]. Clinicians might overestimate cognitive impairment in individuals with limited education, as Ponton et al. [7] found, that non-demented individuals with less than 6 years of schooling score less than 2 standard deviations below average when compared with persons with 16 years of education. The aforementioned data stresses the value of analyze neuropsychological test scores considering education-adjusted norms.