ABSTRACT
The flexible battery approach is different, both practically and conceptually, from the fixed battery strategy. Most flexible battery approaches emanate from a preferred theoretical position regarding; the manner in which behavioral impairment reflects underlying brain pathology, the focus and methodology of the neuropsychological examination. Implementation of the flexible battery approach involves a process of selection, hypothesis testing, and selective attention to relevant subsets of data. In the fixed battery approach, decisions regarding test selection are made a priori, whereas in the flexible battery approach, decision making occurs 'online' in a Markovian manner. The flexible battery clinician views the neuropsychological examination as an 'experiment-in-evolution' in that both the methods used. The flexible battery proponent must also be aware of the information-processing characteristics of a large number of neuropsychological tests. Neuropsychological modifications of existing psychometric tests have been a particularly important contribution of the Boston "process approach" to neuropsychological assessment.
