ABSTRACT
The issue of premorbid cognitive functioning can be quite interesting for neuropsychological research. Presumably, premorbid functioning indicates cognitive and behavioral knowledge representation and use. This knowledge representation can take the form of context-free (e.g., semantic) information or context-dependent (e.g., episodic) information which can be accessed by consciously mediated (e.g., declarative) or nonconsciously mediated (e.g., procedural) production systems. Although a patient’s age, handedness, socioeconomic status, and similar variables are clues to his or her overall premorbid cognitive functioning, these parameters do not offer the precision required (e.g., actual test performance scores) to estimate such functioning accurately.
