Upon completion of the clinical interview, you will have a 5-15 minute break before beginning the neuropsychological testing. Only the patient is permitted in the testing room. 

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The testing typically takes about 2-3 hours with the average being around 2.5 hours. The exact duration of testing is dependent on a number of factors, including your response speed, your ability to stay on-track and on-topic, and the length of breaks. Tests will be administered according to standardized procedures by either Dr. Mouras or a technician. Breaks are scheduled into the testing and generally last 5-15 minutes. 

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Tests are selected by Dr. Mouras to assess the functioning of thinking areas that pertain to your cognitive concerns. What that means, is if you are having difficulty with memory, then we have to directly test your memory. The battery of tests also includes the assessment of other thinking areas, as well as emotional or personality functioning.

 

Testing involves standardized administration of research-supported measures. Some tests may feel a bit silly or seem unrelated, but all of the tests we use are measures that have been developed through extensive peer-reviewed research to examine the functioning of different thinking areas. 

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Test formats include paper and pencil tests, computer tests, and clinical questionnaires. You may be asked during testing to draw or write things, read aloud, solve puzzles, do mental math, and answer a variety of questions. You may request further information about any of these procedures.

 

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Important things to keep in mind during testing: 

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• Some tests may feel really easy while others feel much more difficult. That's natural. An important part of testing is finding the upper limit of your cognitive abilities. So while it can feel frustrating and even a bit demoralizing at times, try not to let it bother you too much. 

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• You may not finish every item or answer every question, much less get everything correct or perfect. That is completely normal. Perfection doesn't exist and we never expect anyone to know everything. All that matters is you try your best. 

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• Many patients comment during testing that they feel dumb or clearly don't know nearly as much as they thought they did. Many patients also comment that they feel like they're doing terribly on everything. It's not the intention of the testing to make you feel bad, but it can be an undesirable side effect, so to speak. It's also important to keep in mind that even cognitively intact individuals (that is, people with no cognitive or emotional difficulties) can produce impaired scores on at least one or two tests within a typical battery. 

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• Guessing is OK! If you don't know, just offer your best guess. If you don't have a best guess, offer whatever guess you can. It might feel pointless, but sometimes you may know or remember things that you are consciously aware of in the moment. 

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• Time is a factor. Even if a test doesn't have a hard time limit, the nature and extent of the testing means that we can't spend too much time on individual items. We don't doubt that you could figure out the puzzle, we just don't have enough time; the tests we use are designed to determine what you can do in the time allotted rather than what you can do given infinite time. As such, there will likely be times when we ask you for an answer or a guess so that we can move on to the next item. Please understand that we aren't trying to rush you, we're just trying to keep testing to the allotted time. 

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• Standardization is very important. To ensure your testing data are reliable, we have to administer each test the exact same way every time. This standardized administration of tests allows for more reliable comparison of your performance to individuals most similar to you in age and education, which means we can more reliably determine if your cognitive functioning is within typical ranges.  

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• Instructions can be a bit lengthy. And repetitive. Unfortunately, that's just the nature of standardized testing procedures. So please bear with us; as obvious as the instructions may seem, we still have to explain them. 

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• We can't usually tell you if your answer is correct or incorrect, and we can't give you an idea of how well your doing on any tests. In fact, sometimes we are very minimally helpful; that's just how some tests are designed. We may not be able to give further explanation or tell you explicitly how to do something. We're not being mean, we're just following the standardized procedures. 

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• A reminder about giving your best effort: It is important that you try your best on all test items. Every test battery includes measures of effort. If anything impacts your ability to give your best effort, results of testing may reflect minimal indicators of cognitive abilities and limit formation of diagnostic conclusions. Please let us know if you are experiencing atypical pain, significant emotional distress, or have any other reason why you may not be able to engage in testing as you would under normal conditions.

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Following completion of the testing, you'll probably feel pretty tired, at least mentally. But day 1 of your appointment will be complete at that point and you'll be free to leave.