Staff

PSYCHOMETRIST

Commonwealth Psychological Associates, PLC routinely uses one of our highly-trained psychometrists as part of the evaluation team to assist our doctors in test administration.

A psychometrist is a person who is not a psychologist but is specially trained and qualified to administer and score psychological and neuropsychological tests under the supervision of a clinical psychologist or clinical neuropsychologist. While some of the tests given as part of the neuropsychological evaluation are given by the neuropsychologist, others will be administered by a psychometrist. Technician training and supervision, test selection, interpretation/analysis of test data, report writing, and neuropsychological consultation are the sole responsibility of the neuropsychologist who is licensed to practice psychology or neuropsychology.

During testing, a psychometrist is under the supervision of a licensed psychologist or neuropsychologist, providing the doctor with observations of the patient's performance from an additional perspective. The use of neuropsychology technicians (as psychometrists are also known) helps maintain the objectivity of data collection and minimizes potential for bias associated with clinical judgment. This practice maintains reliability and validity of test administration. By utilizing technicians to administer assessments, neuropsychologists are allowed more time for analysis of the data, conclusions, interpretation and report writing.

The use of psychometrists in the supervised administration and scoring of the full range of neuropsychological tests can be traced to the late 1930's and has been an established standard of practice in the field of clinical neuropsychology for more than three decades. This practice is not unique to neuropsychology. Other doctoral level health care practitioners also routinely employ trained non-doctoral technical personnel (e.g., radiology and EEG technicians).