ABSTRACT
In contrast to other mental health fields like psychiatry and social work, the fields of psychology and neuropsychology are largely devoted to test selection and interpretation. This includes self-report questionnaires given to an examinee, rating scales filled out by those who know the examinee, intelligence tests, neuropsychological tests (e.g., memory or attention tests), academic achievement tests, actuarial tests used for estimation and prediction, and more. In the legal arena, methods that are grounded in science are also more likely to mesh with the requirements set forth in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (1993), as well as rules of evidence at the federal and state levels, making them valuable to factfinders (i.e., judges and juries), who are trying to improve their decision-making. Because many of the tests used by forensic psychologists and forensic neuropsychologists are grounded in science, they are particularly valuable. However, for one to better understand these methods, it is necessary to explain the rudiments of psychometric constructs like reliability and validity, as well as related concepts such as criterion-referenced scores, norm-referenced scores, the standard error of measurement, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive accuracy, and negative predictive accuracy. This chapter explains this material in greater detail.
