Why the study?
Does the use of actuarial indices improve the accuracy of students and clinicians in identifying and describing brain impairment compared to clinical judgment alone?
Does the use of actuarial indices improve the accuracy of students and clinicians in identifying and describing brain impairment compared to clinical judgment alone?
The use of actuarial indices derived from the adult Wechsler scales significantly improves the accuracy of both students and clinicians in identifying and lateralizing brain impairment.
May support integrating actuarial indices into neuropsychological training; leaves open effects on patient outcomes and broader settings.
Assessed the clinical utility of four cross-validated discriminant functions derived on Wechsler-Bellevue (W-B) variables (Leli & Filskov, 1981) through a clinical-actuarial prediction paradigm. These functions were constructed to be acturial indices of the presence, chronicity extent, and lateralization of brain impairment. From W-B and demographic data gathered on brainimpaired and nonimpaired individuals, 6 students and 6 clinicians were asked to idetify the presence and describe the nature of brain impairment with (Clinical-Actuarial condition) and without (Clinical Judgment condition) the four functions. Relative to the Clinical Judgment condition, clinical actuarial predictin was significantly better in indentifying and determining the extent of brain impairment. Actuarial classification was significantly more superior in lateralizing deficts than were the other conditions. In both judgment conditions, students and clinicians did not differ significantly in classification accuracy. These results indicate that with actuarial indices, the adult Wechsler scales can be used accurately to identify and lateralize brain impairment.
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Leli et al. (1981) studied this question.