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A Compendium of Tests, Scales, and

Questionnaires: The Practitioner's Guide to
Measuring Outcomes After Acquired Brain
Impairment

Article in Applied Neuropsychology January 2012

DOI: 10.1080/09084282.2012.652006 Source: PubMed

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A Compendium of Tests, Scales, and Questionnaires:

The Practitioner's Guide to Measuring Outcomes After
Acquired Brain Impairment
a
Lee Ashendorf Ph.D.
a
Assistant Professor of Psychology, Boston University School of Medicine, Edith Nourse
Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, 116B Psychology, 200 Springs Road, Bedford, MA, 01730

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 APPLIED NEUROPSYCHOLOGY, 19: 7879, 2012
Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0908-4282 print=1532-4826 online
DOI: 10.1080/09084282.2012.652006
BOOK REVIEW
Tate, R. L. (2010). A Compendium of Tests, Scales, and
Questionnaires: The Practitioners Guide to Measuring
Outcomes After Acquired Brain Impairment. New York,
NY: Psychology Press. ISBN 978-1-84169-561-7,
746 pp. $200.
This compendium is designed as a large manual that
allows providersmostly providers of rehabilitation
services, and not necessarily neuropsychologiststo
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easily evaluate and access approximately 150 measures
of acquired brain impairment (ABI) outcome, using
the World Health Organizations International Classi-
cation of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF)
to guide its content and structure.
There is one very important point to understand
before continuing: Please do not evaluate it based on
the inclusion of the catch word compendium in the Galveston Orientation and Amnesia Test, but these
title of the volume. This book is not, and is not intended
to be, in competition with the Strauss, Sherman, and
Spreen (2006) Compendium of Neuropsychological Tests.
Tates Compendium is a compilation that explicitly and
intentionally omits measures that are specic to the
specialty eld of neuropsychology. You will also not
nd explanations of how one should perform an evalu-
ation or elaborate discussions of the neurobiological
correlates of different neuropsychiatric or medical con-
ditions; these are outside of the purview of this volume.
Do not be misled by the fact that the author and several
book-cover reviewers are identied as neuropsycholo-
gists. Once this is taken into account, the reader will nd
that the book performs quite well at achieving its true
objectives.
Perhaps the most appealing aspect of the book is the
fact that it includes copies of most of the measures it
reviewsabout 75% of them are reprinted within the
text. The feasibility of this is largely due to the brevity
of the measures, as well as their standing in the public
domain. As such, you will not nd lengthier tests or bat-
teries covered hereso no Wechsler Adult Intelligence
Scales (WAIS; Wechsler, 2008).
The Introduction section provides a very brief
(one-page) summary of psychometric concepts that pales
in comparison to the analogous section found in neurop-
sychology guidebooks, but it sufces for the purposes of
this text. This is then followed by several pages outlining
the ICF and its structure. Although this part of the sec-
tion is probably of interest only to true devotees or
staunch opponents of the ICF, this does set the scene
for the remainder of the book. The author runs into some
difculty tting certain tests into proper ICF categories,
as explained in the text of the Introduction, but overall,
the classication itself is performed admirably.
Part A comprises Body Functions, which in this
book is the construct with which most neuropsycho-
logists will strongly identify. This section includes orien-
tation, cognition, brain-behavior functions, and sensory
functions. Unlike the comparable sections in major neu-
ropsychology texts, though, the measures represented
here are brief, tersely reviewed, and typically self-report
in nature. Most readers will recognize scales such as the
Glasgow Coma Scale, Rancho Los Amigos Scale, and
are just 3 of the 17 measures covered in the rst section
(Consciousness and Orientation). The subsequent sec-
tion on General Cognitive Functions also covers 17
different measures, including the Mini Mental State
Examination (MMSE) and several other familiar and
not-so-familiar tools. The measures of specic cogni-
tive functions represent a cursory selection of rating
scales of attention, executive functions, language, mem-
ory, and self-awareness. Most measures in this chapter
are self- or informant-rating scales about perceived
functioning within that domain; a few, though, are cog-
nitive assessment tools. The focus on brevity and self-
report trumps public domain access, as you will not nd
common publicly available memory measures such as
Reys Auditory Verbal Learning Test here. Chapter 5
includes rating scales that assess behaviors that are com-
monly altered following brain injury or disease, such as
agitation, apathy, or fatigue. The nal chapter of Part A
includes a cursory look at measures of sensory and
motor functionsgenerally one measure per sense and
then a variety of motor function scales. The selection
of measures here is somewhat curiousfor example,
the chapter reports on the San Diego Odor Identi-
cation Test instead of a better-known olfactory measure
such as the Brief Smell Identication Test (which is at
least commercially accessible, unlike the San Diego mea-
sure). The description of this test even explains that little

is known about its psychometric properties, yet it still
won the role of the sole representative in the Smell
Functions category here.
The remaining sections of the book are briefer. Part
B, Activities and Participation, includes two chapters.
The rst covers activities of daily living and includes
industry standards such as the Lawton & Brody scales,
and the second chapter includes scales assessing handi-
cap and potential for community (re)integration. Part
Cs scales evaluate environmental factors that contribute
to the individuals postinjury functioning. Part D
includes global and multidomain measures, such as the
Clinical Dementia Rating Scale, commonly used in
Alzheimers disease research, and the Rivermead
Postconcussion Symptoms Questionnaire.
Most readers might not even glance at the appen-
dices, but these might be more interesting than some
parts of the text itself. Appendix A provides a fairly
broad array of clinical syndromes and disorders and
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then lists the measures in the book with which each of
those disorders has been explored. If you have a patient
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), for example,
you can refer to the list of 21 measures in the book that
have been used in research with individuals who have
MS. Certainly the clinician will not want to use this fea-
ture for full battery designthe MMSE will obviously
not sufce for the entirety of cognitive evaluation by a
qualied neuropsychologistbut it could be a nice
starting point when looking for supplemental measures
to round out a battery. Even looking at the test index
reveals a curiosity: The author included many tests here
that are only peripherally mentioned in the text, such as
the Boston Naming Test or the WAIS.
A feature that the reader may or may not nd to
be useful, but will likely nd to be different, is an offer
of online access to all tests that are reprinted within
the bookfor a one-time payment of $150. Given that
the tests in question are publicly available measures that
one can generally nd online quite easily, given that the
reader has already paid $200 for the book itself, and
given that one can just as easily photocopy the measures
from the book, it will likely seem excessive to most to be
asked to pay another $150 to access these otherwise-free
instruments. The book itself should sufce for the inter-
ested clinicians needs; the additional online access is
not a must have.
Overall, this is not a book that will be a core part of a
neuropsychologists repertoire, at least not on a par with
the Strauss et al. (2006) or Lezak, Howieson, & Loring
(2004) texts. But it was not designed to be one of those
View publication stats
BOOK REVIEW 79
books, so it seems unfair to judge it in that context. The
cost will likely price the book out of an acceptable range
for neuropsychology-oriented graduate students, who
will better benet from purchasing the core neuropsy-
chology texts anyway, so this volumes target audience
within neuropsychology is essentially limited to pro-
fessional clinicians. It caters more directly to generalists
seeking a Strauss et al.-type book but without the need
for neuropsychological expertise. It is likely best suited
for non-neuropsychologist rehabilitation professionals
(e.g., occupational therapists, speech therapists, rehabili-
tation psychologists). This is not to say that the volume
lacks any utility for neuropsychologists. It can be seen
as a supplement to the core neuropsychology texts, as
the measures it contains can be used as adjuncts to
a standard neuropsychological battery. Certainly, self-
reported ABI outcomes represent a variable not explored
by many neuropsychologists. Additionally, neuro-
psychologists who consult with other disciplines might
recommend some of these tools to other professionals
as a good starting point toward determining whether
an individual might benet from a more in-depth neu-
ropsychological evaluation. The measures can also be
recommended or offered to these other providers as they
look for tools they can use clinically without having to
send inappropriate referrals to the neuropsychologist.
In sum, although Tates Compendium of Tests, Scales,
and Questionnaires does not rank among the top
must-haves for a neuropsychology-specic library, I
am pleased to position it close to the must-haves on
my own bookshelf.
Lee Ashendorf, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Boston University School of Medicine
Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital
116B Psychology, 200 Springs Road
Bedford, MA 01730
E-mail: Lee.Ashendorf@va.gov
REFERENCES
Lezak, M. D., Howieson, D. B., & Loring, D. W. (2004). Neuropsycho-
logical assessment (4th ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University
Press.
Strauss, E., Sherman, E. M., & Spreen, O. (2006). A compendium of
neuropsychological tests: Administration, norms, and commentary
(3rd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Wechsler, D. (2008). WAIS-IV administration and scoring manual.
San Antonio, TX: Pearson.