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Neuropsychological Applications of the International Test Commission’s (ITC) Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests: Confirmation, Administration, Scoring, Interpretation, and Documentation.
Objective:
To apply the International Test Commission (ITC) Guidelines for Translating and Adapting Tests (Second Edition, 2017) for Confirmation, Administration, Scoring, Interpretation, and Documentation specifically to the needs of neuropsychology in attention, memory, executive functions, social cognition, language, and other domains.
Authors from 10 nations reviewed literature concerning neuropsychological test translation, adaptation, and development. We drew upon our own professional experience, and consulted with colleagues involved in neuropsychological test translation, adaptation, and development projects from 6 continents and over 20 languages from multiple language families, writing systems, and multilingualisms.
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.
In terms of Confirmation, we along with ITC recommended that test developers should consider key elements that define the population to select a sufficient and representative sample. We recommended differential item functioning analysis to test item equivalence., Test developers should establish normative data and assess psychometric properties for different use and contexts and carefully select the equating design when comparing scores from different language versions.
In Administration, our suggestion involved introspecting on personal biases and preconceived notions and considering test-specific factors and environment-specific elements. Local practices and expectations may call for adaptations of the conditions of administration.
In the stage of SSI, test developers should consider different test settings and environmental factors such as inpatient or outpatient, take into account contextual effects such as educational systems, and interpret scores cautiously when applying not fully representative normative data. In the section of Documentation, our suggestions included providing comprehensive details of the adaptation process and evidence of the psychometric properties in technical manual, as well as providing a user manual to ensure proper administration, scoring, and interpretation.
The ITC Guidelines provide aspirational goals for state-of-the-art test translation and adaptation. The adaptation process goes well beyond accurate language translation to touch every aspect of test development and use.