Cognitive Assessment

CLI PA601 - Cognitive Assessment

Credits: 3

This course will focus upon assessment theory and technique as it applies to cognition and intelligence.  Students will be exposed to a variety of cognitive and intellectual measures throughout the course of the semester. Primary focus will be given to the Wechsler Scales (WISC-V, WAIS-IV), along with other strategic cognitive measures that assess visual-motor integration, scanning, attention, memory, conceptual thinking and language-based functions. In preparation for field placement testing assignments and future APA internships, students will learn to administer, score, interpret, integrate and present these testing measures in oral and written report formats.  

In addition to developing a facility with these various assessment measures, this course will address a number of core topics. In particular, students will learn to give batteries of tests to address strategic differential diagnostic questions dictated by an initial Wechsler screening. Also, the history and future of assessment, contemporary controversies, cross-cultural diversity, evidenced-based assessments and testing special populations, are all topics that will be examined as they relate to cognitive and intellectual assessment.  The course is designed as a "hands-on", pragmatic primer that will provide a beginning framework for all subsequent psychological testing endeavors. In-class exercises, examinations, and presentations; along with outside of class testing assignments and report writing will be the basis for assessing each student's class performance.

NOTE: This course is open only to students in the doctoral program in Clinical Psychology.