INS NYC 2024 Program

Symposium	Symposia 6 Program Schedule 02/15/2024 02:15 pm - 03:45 pm Room: Broadway Ballroom Symposia 6: Neuropsychological Application of the International Test Commission’s Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests Simposium #1 Neuropsychological Applications of the International Test Commission’s (ITC) Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests: Pre-Conditions and Test Development Shathani Rampa, Queens College, City University of New York, New York, United States Category: Cross Cultural Neuropsychology/ Clinical Cultural Neuroscience Keyword 1: bilingualism/multilingualism Keyword 2: test development Keyword 3: multiculturalism Objective: To apply the International Test Commission (ITC) Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests (Second Edition, 2017) for Pre-Conditions and Test Development specifically to the needs of neuropsychology in attention, memory, executive functions, social cognition, language, and other domains. Participants and Methods: The Application was collaboratively developed by authors representing more than 10 nations. We conducted literature review concerning neuropsychological test translation, adaptation, and development, drew upon our own professional experience, sought advice from colleagues with experience in this area, and consulted experts proficient in this subject matter. Results: We outlined precise instructions for applying the existing ITC Guidelines in the translation, adaptation, and development of neuropsychological tests, along with a range of strategies to aid in these processes. The 18 guidelines are organized into six categories to facilitate their use: Pre-condition (PC), Test Development (TD), Confirmation, Administration, Scoring and Interpretation (SSI), and Documentation. For PC, we recommended collaborating with test developers and intellectual property rights owners to obtain the necessary permission and a shared vision for the project. We also suggested establishing construct equivalence through consultations to evaluate the amount of overlap in the definition and content. Piloting and test user consultation are beneficial to minimize irrelevant cultural and linguistic differences. It is important to clarify the intended uses of the new test version in advance, particularly to determine whether the adapted test can address those objectives, such as harmonizing data to allow direct test score comparisons of different populations or if the objective is to provide similar functions (e.g., diagnosis, intervention plans, competencies) in dissimilar populations. For TD, our recommendation entailed consulting a multidisciplinary team, considering test-specific factors such as phonemic complexity and word frequency, ensuring same understanding of instructions between test takers and administrators, allowing variations in test-taking approaches, and using a combination of qualitative and quantitative piloting studies. Additionally, we introduced a test adaptation typology. This typology guides test developers in determining the most suitable strategy, whether the most feasible strategy is to translate and slightly adapt a test, translate with full adaptation, construct a test in the target language that follows the same paradigm as the model test, or construct a test in the target language with a new design. Conclusions: The ITC Guidelines provide aspirational goals for state-of-the-art test translation and adaptation. Neuropsychology can benefit by applying this guidance, with careful attention to linguistic, memory, and other cognitive and cultural properties of test materials and processes, as detailed in this Application.

Symposium

02/15/2024
02:15 pm - 03:45 pm
Room: Broadway Ballroom

Symposia 6: Neuropsychological Application of the International Test Commission’s Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests

Simposium #1

Neuropsychological Applications of the International Test Commission’s (ITC) Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests: Pre-Conditions and Test Development

Shathani Rampa, Queens College, City University of New York, New York, United States

Category: Cross Cultural Neuropsychology/ Clinical Cultural Neuroscience

Keyword 1: bilingualism/multilingualism
Keyword 2: test development
Keyword 3: multiculturalism

Objective:

To apply the International Test Commission (ITC) Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests (Second Edition, 2017) for Pre-Conditions and Test Development specifically to the needs of neuropsychology in attention, memory, executive functions, social cognition, language, and other domains.

Participants and Methods:

The Application was collaboratively developed by authors representing more than 10 nations. We conducted literature review concerning neuropsychological test translation, adaptation, and development, drew upon our own professional experience, sought advice from colleagues with experience in this area, and consulted experts proficient in this subject matter.

Results:

We outlined precise instructions for applying the existing ITC Guidelines in the translation, adaptation, and development of neuropsychological tests, along with a range of strategies to aid in these processes. The 18 guidelines are organized into six categories to facilitate their use: Pre-condition (PC), Test Development (TD), Confirmation, Administration, Scoring and Interpretation (SSI), and Documentation.

For PC, we recommended collaborating with test developers and intellectual property rights owners to obtain the necessary permission and a shared vision for the project. We also suggested establishing construct equivalence through consultations to evaluate the amount of overlap in the definition and content. Piloting and test user consultation are beneficial to minimize irrelevant cultural and linguistic differences. It is important to clarify the intended uses of the new test version in advance, particularly to determine whether the adapted test can address those objectives, such as harmonizing data to allow direct test score comparisons of different populations or if the objective is to provide similar functions (e.g., diagnosis, intervention plans, competencies) in dissimilar populations.

For TD, our recommendation entailed consulting a multidisciplinary team, considering test-specific factors such as phonemic complexity and word frequency, ensuring same understanding of instructions between test takers and administrators, allowing variations in test-taking approaches, and using a combination of qualitative and quantitative piloting studies.

Additionally, we introduced a test adaptation typology. This typology guides test developers in determining the most suitable strategy, whether the most feasible strategy is to translate and slightly adapt a test, translate with full adaptation, construct a test in the target language that follows the same paradigm as the model test, or construct a test in the target language with a new design.

Conclusions:

The ITC Guidelines provide aspirational goals for state-of-the-art test translation and adaptation. Neuropsychology can benefit by applying this guidance, with careful attention to linguistic, memory, and other cognitive and cultural properties of test materials and processes, as detailed in this Application.