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ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8031-5882
Date of Graduation
5-15-2025
Semester of Graduation
Summer
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Department of Graduate Psychology
First Advisor
Robin Anderson
Second Advisor
Bernice Marcopulos
Abstract
Neuropsychological tests were developed primarily for Westernized, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) populations (Henrich, 2020; Fernández & Abe, 2018). According to the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology (AACN) Relevance 2050 Initiative project, approximately sixty percent of Americans will be deemed unsuitable for neuropsychological testing because test norms are primarily based on European Americans who speak English (AACN, 2015). To aid in effective cross-cultural neuropsychological assessment, The Multicultural Neuropsychological Scale (MUNS; Fernández et al., 2018) was developed to be easily translatable to various languages. The MUNS is a 40-minute neuropsychological test battery that examines cognitive abilities such as reading fluency, executive functions (Party), memory (Personage Memory, Visual Memory), attention (New Arrows), constructional praxis (Dots and Lines), and language (Animals). This study aimed to evaluate the convergent validity, discriminant validity, inter-rater reliability, and inter-rater agreement of the MUNS Party Subtest as a credible measure of planning abilities within executive functions in healthy college-aged adults. The MUNS Party Subtest total scores and the BRIEF-Adult self-report measure total BRI, MI, and GEC scores did not correlate. Results indicate there is evidence to support the discriminant validity of the MUNS Party Subtest. Results displayed moderate inter-rater agreement between two JMU raters and Dr. Fernandez’ ratings. Further studies are needed to continue to examine the psychometric properties of executive function tasks, including the MUNS Party Subtest within samples of various cultural backgrounds and neurocognitive deficits.
