ABSTRACT
Psychological testing of African Americans has been a longstanding point of controversy in the United States. The major dilemma deals with the disparate performance between African Americans and whites. While some African Americans perform comparably to their white counterparts on tests of cognitive functioning and intelligence, a significant proportion of African Americans score lower on these measures (Jencks & Phillips, 2000). The reasons for the black-white differences in performance on cognitive (includes measures of verbal abilities, vis-à-vis speech and language) and neuropsychological tests are many and complex, and the theoretical explanations posed are largely flawed and unsupported by scientific research. As a consequence, little progress has been made toward improving cognitive test performance in African Americans, and, thereby, increasing their chances for educational and economic success. Lowenstein, Arguelles, and Arguelles (1994) acknowledged that one of the greatest challenges facing neuropsychologists today is the assessment of individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
