Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test performance of black, hispanic, and white young adult males from poor academic backgrounds

Abstract

Forty-five black, Hispanic, and white young adult males of average range intellectual functioning, from poor academic backgrounds but with average academic achievement scores, were administered the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery (HRNB). The results indicated that the Impairment Index, based on the traditional cutoffs, did not overly mis-represent this group as impaired. However, using the traditional cutoffs, the percentage in the impaired range on individual subtests ranged from 11% to 71%, suggesting caution when subtests are used apart from the battery (specifically, problems with the Finger Tapping test cutoffs are discussed). The three racial/ethnic groups did not have significantly different Impairment Indexes, and there were few significant differences between them on individual subtests.