A Clinical Measure for the Assessment of Problem Solving in Brain-Injured Adults

Abstract

Rapid Assessment of Problem Solving (RAPS) is a clinical test of verbal problem-solving skills for brain-injured persons. This modification of F. A. Mosher and J. R. Hornsby's (1966) Twenty Questions Test (20Q) reduces the memory demands of the test for brain-injured clients. This article provides background on the 20Q Test and modifications made for RAPS. It describes RAPS materials, administration, and scoring procedures and reports RAPS results for 70 normal participants. Normal participants solved RAPS problems with an average of 5 questions. Questions were predominantly constraint seeking and focused on semantic categories or features. Normal participants also reflected substantial variability in their performance on RAPS. This appeared to be related to 2 metacognitive abilities associated with problem solving, planning, and shifting set. The performance of 3 chronic traumatically brain injured individuals is also described and compared to the normal sample to illustrate clinical applications of RAPS.