Examination of two Decision Rules for the Global Interpretation of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery Summary Profile

Abstract

Rules have been developed to facilitate global interpretive discriminations from the summary profile of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB). Two such rules focus on the number of scales above an individual critical level and the range between highest and lowest summary scale t-score. Neither of the criteria have been observed for their relationships with either demographic or treatment variables (e.g., length of hospitalization, type of medication, etc.).

The LNNB protocols and demographic and treatment data of 1037 persons were included in this study. The sample included not only brain impaired persons, but also schizophrenic subjects and both medical patients and nonhospitalized normal subjects. A series of analyses indicated that, though the number of scales above critical level and the range may be used in global interpretation of the LNNB profile, the effect of both demographic and treatment variables ought to be taken into account when making an interpretation with an individual patient. More conservative estimates of classification accuracy are reported and several cautions are recommended when applying these decision rules to schizophrenics.