The legal standards for admissibility of expert testimony have recently been raised following several U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Although forensic mental health experts have reiied on psychological testing as a method of data collection for many years, the scientific basis of such testing has traditionally gone unquestioned in court. Given the increased scmtiny currently being applied to expert testimony, it is more important now than ever for attorneys, judges, and forensic experts to understand the scientific principles underlying psychological tests. In this article, the scientific principles of validity and reliability are explained, and scientifically acceptable methods for the forensic use of psychological testing are discussed. The application of recent case law to several well-known tests is described.

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This article reports interrater reliability among 4 teams of raters who independently evaluated thought disorder in 20 Rorschach protocols using the Thought Disorder Index (TDI). Intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated to assess the degree of association among the 4 teams for total thought disorder scores, severity levels, and qualitative thought disorder factors. Highly acceptable agreement was obtained. Spearman rank order correlation coefficients for these same variables were significant for all possible pairings of teams. A repeated-measures analysis of variance indicated that the absolute amount of thought disorder tagged by each team differed even though the teams' relative rankings of thought disorder among subjects was very similar. Such scoring differences reflect individual differences in threshold for detecting deviant thinking.

Incontinence in Down Syndrome is mainly present in young children and increases in older adults. Behavioral comorbidity is associated with incontinence only in adults with Down Syndrome. Screening and treatment of incontinence in individuals with Down Syndrome is recommended.

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