In memory of Paul Green, PhD.

The manuscript describes the important research and practice contributions of Paul Green PhD. The manuscript also expresses the sadness of all who knew Dr. Green at his untimely demise.

Introduction to special issue on effort testing in children and adolescents.

This manuscript reviews the past history of effort testing in children and adolescents. Results in children and adults are briefly described on tests such as the Word Memory Test (WMT), the Medical Symptom Validity Test (MSVT), the Nonverbal Medical Symptom Validity Test (NV-MSVT) and Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM). Articles in the Special Issue are also briefly described.

Gerald "Jerry" Goldstein (1931-2017).

Presents an obituary of Gerald "Jerry" Goldstein (1931-2017). Jerry passed away at his home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 8, 2017. Goldstein was famous for his contributions to the establishment of clinical neuropsychology as a science and professional specialty. In addition to his extraordinary service to the specialty, he made important contributions to the neuropsychology of alcoholism and schizophrenia, as well as to neuropsychological rehabilitation. (PsycINFO Database Record

Prevalence of low scores in children and adolescents on the test of verbal conceptualization and fluency.

It is important to consider the prevalence of low scores when administering a battery of psychological tests. Understanding the prevalence of low scores is important for minimizing false-positive diagnoses of cognitive deficits in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to expand the literature on base rates for use in children and adolescents. Participants were 408 healthy children and adolescents (M(age) = 13.1 years, SD = 3.7) and 139 children and adolescents (M(age) = 12.4 years, SD = 3.1) diagnosed with a medical, neurological, or learning condition. All participants were administered the Test of Verbal Conceptualization and Fluency (TVCF; Reynolds & Horton, 2006 ). The clinical sample performed significantly lower compared with the healthy control participants on three of the five TVCF scores. When all scores were considered simultaneously, 38% of healthy children obtained one or more scores below the 16th percentile and 15% had one or more scores in the 5th percentile or lower. By comparison, significantly higher proportions of children in the clinical sample had low scores below each of the five cutoffs (i.e., 63% had one or more test scores below the 16th percentile and 37% had one or more scores in the 5th percentile or lower). Our findings illustrate the importance of considering the prevalence of low TVCF scores in everyday clinical practice with children and adolescents.

Executive functions in children with traumatic brain injury.

The maturational course of the development of executive functioning abilities is dependent on the functional capacity of the human brain. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of standardized functional assessments of executive functioning abilities for children. The present article describes neurodevelopment of executive functioning and several recent measures of executive functioning that have been developed to assess maturational periods of specific executive functions. Clinical implications of these results for traumatically brain-injured children are described.

Early detection of risk of onset for dementia of the Alzheimer type and subtle executive dysfunction after TBI using the test of verbal conceptualization and fluency during clinical neuropsychological assessment: two case studies.

Two case reports are presented that illustrate the use of a new assessment instrument of executive skills, the Test of Verbal Conceptualization and Fluency (TVCF), as a component of a clinical neuropsychological assessment. The cases presented include the assessment of a patient at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and a patient with subtle signs of executive dysfunction subsequent to a mild head injury. Both patients had high levels of education and occupational status. The TVCF demonstrated clinical sensitivity to central nervous system (CNS) insult and results similar to those obtained with other established measures of executive functioning.

Derived trail making test cutoffs and malingering among substance abusers.

The Trail Making test (TMT) is often used to screen for cognitive impairment in substance abusers. A possible limitation of the TMT in clinical settings is that substance abusers may malinger and give poor effort. Data from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study (DATOS) were analyzed to develop derived TMT cutoffs. Data were analyzed to determine number of substance abusers that fell beyond the upper end of the distribution of selected derived TMT scores at the 10, 5, and 1 percentiles. These percentiles were set for alcoholics (n = 1000), cocaine abusers (n = 4306), and heroin abusers (n = 1548) for TMT selected derived scores. Inspection of the selected TMT derived scores yielded an impression that the percentile values for the 3 sub-samples of primary drugs of abuse, alcohol, cocaine, and heroin, are actually very similar at each of the 3 percentile levels. This would suggest that these estimates are actually quite stable and reinforces the notion that they may be creditable estimates. The proper use of the derived TMT cutoff scores is to alert clinicians to the increasingly higher probability of poor effort when a substance abuser in one of the three groups scores beyond the one percent cutoff for the primary drug of abuse sample. Clearly, the use of these cutoffs needs further empirical validation before they would be considered as a single source to suggest malingering. Great caution is suggested in using these cutoff scores for clinical purposes with substance abusing patients in their current state of validation. In short, further research is warranted.

Demographic effects on the Trail Making Test in a drug abuse treatment sample.

Appreciation of the importance of screening for cognitive impairment among substance abusing populations has increased in recent years. In this article, demographic effects on the Trail Making Test (TMT), a test often used for screening for cognitive impairment, are examined in a sample of patients in drug abuse treatment programs. A sample of 5,619 males and 2,902 females was drawn from electronic files of data from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study (DATOS). The DATOS was a naturalistic cohort study that collected data from 1991 to 1993 in 96 programs in 11 cities in the US. Data were analyzed to determine the effects of demographic variables on the two parts of the TMT in this large sample of patients. Consistent with previous research, demographic variables such as age, gender, education level, and ethnicity were statistically significantly related to both TMT Parts A and B. More importantly, however, the percentage of variance accounted for was quite small. These results suggest that, while clearly present, demographic effects on the TMT are weak.

Depression and trail making test scores in a sample of cocaine abusers.

Depression effects on the Trail Making test (TMT), a test often used for screening cognitive impairments, were examined in a sample of cocaine abusers in drug abuse treatment programs. A mixed race sample of 4299 subjects was drawn from electronic files of data from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study (DATOS). DATOS was a naturalistic, prospective cohort study that collected data from 1991-1993 in 96 programs in 11 cities in the United States. Data were analyzed to determine the effects of depression on the TMT scores A and B, and also derived indices created by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing parts A and B of the TMT in this large treatment sample of cocaine abusers. The variables of sex, age, ethnicity, and education were included in analyses to control for demographic effects. The TMT part A and the difference score were the least sensitive TMT scores to the effects of depression but all TMT R-squares were quite small.

Trail making test cut-offs for malingering among cocaine, heroin, and alcohol abusers.

The Trail Making Test (TMT) is frequently used to screen for cognitive impairments in substance abusers; however, an existing problem is that substance abusers may give poor effort and the TMT results may not be valid. In this study, cutting scores for malingering were developed from three samples drawn from electronic files of data from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study (DATOS), a naturalistic, prospective cohort study that collected data from 1991-1993 in 96 drug abuse treatment programs in 11 cities in the United States. The DATOS enrolled 7689 substance abusers. The three drawn samples were for subjects with primary drugs of abuse. Number of subjects were as follows: alcohol-1000, cocaine/crack-4306, heroin-1548. Data were analyzed to determine number of substance abusers that fell beyond the upper end of the distribution of TMT scores at the ten, five, and one percentiles. These percentiles were set for alcoholics, cocaine abusers, and heroin abusers. The proper use of the cut-off scores is to alert clinicians to the increasingly higher probability of poor effort when a substance abuser in one of the three groups scores beyond the one percent cut-off or his or her sample of primary drug of abuse. Clearly, the use of these cut-offs needs further empirical validation.

Anxiety and trail making test scores in a sample of cocaine abusers.

Anxiety effects on the Trail Making test (TMT), a test often used for screening for cognitive impairments, were examined in a sample of cocaine abusers in drug abuse treatment programs. A mixed race sample of 4306 subjects was drawn from electronic files of data from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study (DATOS). The DATOS was a naturalistic, prospective cohort study that collected data from 1991-1993 in 96 programs in 11 cities in the United States. Data were analyzed to determine the effects of anxiety on the TMT scores A and B, and also derived indices created by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing parts A and B of the TMT in this large treatment sample of cocaine abusers. The variables of sex, age, ethnicity, and education were included in analyses to control for demographic effects. The ratio derived score was the least sensitive TMT score to the effects of anxiety, but all TMT R-squares were quite small.

Derived trail making test indices in a sample of narcotic/other opiate abusers: demographic effects.

Derived indices on the Trail Making Test (TMT), a test often used to screen for cognitive impairment, were examined in a sample of 191 narcotic/other opiate abusers in drug abuse treatment programs. A mixed race sample was drawn from electronic files of data from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study (DATOS). The DATOS was a naturalistic, prospective cohort study that collected data from 1991-1993 in 96 programs in 11 cities in the United States. Data were analyzed to determine the effects of demographic variables on derived indices created by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing parts A and B of the TMT in this large treatment sample of substance abusers. The variables of age, ethnicity, and education were statistically significant for the total score (A + B) and interaction score (A x B/100) derived indices of the TMT. In addition, the difference score (B - A) was statistically significant for education. The ratio score (B/A) was not significant for any demographic variable.

Derived trail making test indices in a sample of sedative abusers: demographic effects.

Derived indices on the Trail Making test (TMT), a test often used to screen for cognitive impairment, were examined in a sample of 72 sedative abusers in drug abuse treatment programs. A mixed race sample was drawn from electronic files of data from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study (DATOS). The DATOS was a naturalistic, prospective cohort study that collected data from 1991-1993 in 96 programs in 11 cities in the United States. Data were analyzed to determine the effects of demographic variables on derived indices created by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing parts A and B of the TMT in this large treatment sample of substance abusers. The variables of sex, age, ethnicity, and education were not statistically significant for selected derived indices of the TMT.

Derived trail making test indices in a sample of hallucinogen abusers: demographic effects.

Derived indices on the Trail Making test (TMT), a test often used for screening for cognitive impairment, were examined in a sample of hallucinogen abusers in drug abuse treatment programs. A mixed race sample (N = 128) was drawn from electronic files of data from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study (DATOS). The DATOS was a naturalistic, prospective cohort study that collected data from 1991 to 1993 in 96 programs in 11 cities in the United States. Data were analyzed to determine the effects of demographic variables on derived indices created by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing Parts A and B of the TMT in this large treatment sample of hallucinogen abusers. The variables of sex and age were not statistically significant for derived indices of the TMT. The variable of ethnicity was significant for the all derived indices except the ratio score (divide Part B by Part A) and the variable of education was significant for the interaction score (multiply Part A by Part B and divide by 100).

Derived Trail Making Test indices in a sample of amphetamine abusers: demographic effects.

Derived indices on the Trail Making Test (TMT), a test often used for screening for cognitive impairment, were examined in a sample of amphetamine abusers in drug abuse treatment programs. A mixed race sample (N = 185) was drawn from electronic files of data from the Drug Abuse Treatment Outcome Study (DATOS), a naturalistic, prospective cohort study that collected data from 1991 to 1993 in 96 programs in 11 cities in the United States. Data were analyzed to determine the effects of demographic variables on derived indices created by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing Parts A and B of the TMT in this large treatment sample of substance abusers. The variables of sex, age, ethnicity, and education were not statistically significant for selected derived indices of the TMT.