title: When the third party observer of a neuropsychological evaluation is an audio-recorder.
abstract: The presence of third parties during neuropsychological evaluations is an issue of concern for contemporary neuropsychologists. Previous studies have reported that the presence of an observer during neuropsychological testing alters the performance of individuals under evaluation. The present study sought to investigate whether audio-recording affects the neuropsychological test performance of individuals in the same way that third party observation does. In the presence of an audio-recorder the performance of the participants on memory tests declined. Performance on motor tests, on the other hand, was not affected by the presence of an audio-recorder. The implications of these findings in forensic neuropsychological evaluations are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY, USA. mc3067@albany.edu
authors.forename: Marios
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Constantinou
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ashendorf
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: McCaffrey
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards*; D015588:Observer Variation; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013637:Tape Recording / Q000295:instrumentation*