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. 2002 Jul;94(7):591–601.

Caveats in the neuropsychological assessment of African Americans.

Alfonso L Campbell Jr 1, Carlota Ocampo 1, Kashemi DeShawn Rorie 1, Sonya Lewis 1, Shawn Combs 1, Phyllis Ford-Booker 1, Juanita Briscoe 1, Ometha Lewis-Jack 1, Andrew Brown 1, Don Wood 1, Gary Dennis 1, Roger Weir 1, Alicia Hastings 1
PMCID: PMC2594299  PMID: 12126285

Abstract

This preliminary investigation examined the predictive accuracy of six neuropsychological tests in a population of non-brain-injured African Americans. False positives were unacceptably high on five of the neuropsychological tests administered. These pilot data raise important questions about the utility of neuropsychological test norms with groups dissimilar in sociocultural background to the normative population. These findings are examined in terms of the relative merits of the race-homogenous and race-comparative paradigms and underscore the importance of conducting normative studies that involve ethnic minority populations.

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Selected References

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