The 'obsolescence' of assessment procedures.

The concept that obsolescence or being "out of date" makes a test or procedure invalid ("inaccurate," "inappropriate," "not useful," "creating wrong interpretations," etc.) has been widely accepted in psychology and neuropsychology. Such obsolescence, produced by publishing a new version of a test, has produced an extensive nullification of research effort (probably 10,000 Wechsler studies).

Commentary on Larrabee, Millis, and Meyers' paper "sensitivity to brain dysfunction of the Halstead Reitan vs an ability-focused neuropsychological battery".

The study by Larrabee, Millis, and Meyers (2007) was designed to compare the sensitivity to brain dysfunction of the Halstead Reitan Battery (HRB) to an ability-focused battery using data from Russell's database. Appropriate cases were screened to eliminate participants "wherein external incentive (Veterans Disability) was a possible factor ..

The Flynn Effect revisited.

The Flynn Effect postulates that intelligence is increasing over time. However, as an environment becomes optimal, a plateau occurs when general growth becomes largely determined by genetics. There is evidence that such a plateau is occurring for intelligence in countries with optimal social environments.

Commentary on Loring and Larrabee's Reanalysis of Reitan's Original Studies.

The article by Loring and Larrabee (2006) used effect size to compare Reitan's original Halstead Index (HI) data with Wechsler Bellevue Intelligence Scale (W-B) data. The results may be interpreted to support the concept that Halstead's concept of "biological" and "psychometric" intelligence was a form of "fluid" and "crystallized" intelligence. Except for three unused subtests, HI tests were fluid, while W-B performance tests were somewhat fluid and the W-B verbal tests were crystallized.

Commentary on "A motion to exclude and the 'fixed' versus 'flexible' battery in 'forensic' neuropsychology".

In a recent article Bigler criticized the utilization of the Daubert criterion in "motions to exclude". He cited attempts to deny trial acceptability of assessment results derived from neuropsychological batteries that were not fixed or standardized. He argues that the Halstead-Reitan battery (HRB) would be the only acceptable battery.

The fundamental psychometric status of neuropsychological batteries.

A fundamental requirement for neuropsychological assessment is dependability. Neuropsychological knowledge is dependable only if it has been validated using psychometric methods. Since batteries are used for interpretations, the psychometric validation methods that are acceptable for individual tests must be applied to batteries to produce dependable information.

Norming subjects for the Halstead Reitan battery.

The adequacy of neuropsychological norms is dependent on the characteristics of the subjects whose data are used. Volunteer participants and neurologically normal participants in major normative studies show markedly different patterns of test performance that reflects on the inadequacy of using volunteer participants to develop norms. In this study when all of the Halstead Reitan Battery norming studies with an N of 200 or more were examined, Wechsler FSIQ score differences of approximately 1 standard deviation above average for the volunteer normative participants was found.

The operating characteristics of the major HRNES-R measures.

The operating characteristics and base rate effects of tests and indexes in the Halstead Russell Neuropsychological Evaluation System-Revised (HRNES-R) were obtained to determine its accuracy in assessing brain damage. Since operating characteristics and base rate problems are not well understood they were discussed in some detail. The operating characteristics of Sensitivity, Specificity, Positive Predictive Power, Negative Predictive Power and Overall Predictive Power along with base rate effects were obtained for 2 HRNES-R indexes, 10 index tests and 3 other Halstead Reitan Battery (HRB) tests.