Protocol for the Development of a Computerized Battery for Cross-Cultural Neuropsychological Assessment: The EMBRACED Project

Abstract

Globalization is making our world increasingly diverse. However, the field of neuropsychological assessment hasn’t addressed this diversity appropriately and people around the world are being assessed with instruments that are not culturally adapted for them. Practitioners are using tests that were originally created for Western culture(s) to evaluate patients of all demographic backgrounds. The solution is the development of computerized cross-cultural tests, but there is no established standard procedure for creating a battery that is comprehensive, modular, psychometrically robust, easy to use, free, and culturally salient. The EMBRACED battery is intended to be exactly that. The protocol for its development followed strict, evidence-based scientific methods for the determination of all its neuropsychological domains, their relevant constructs, and the best tasks to measure them; the tasks and stimuli are also computerized. The EMBRACED battery is user-friendly, cost-effective, and patient-guided. The preliminary results obtained to date show that culture has a significant effect on neuropsychological test performance, with bias in favor of Western populations. Our field has an ethical responsibility to improve our instruments, increase fairness in testing, and to fight for social justice around the world, which is precisely the aim of the EMBRACED project.

Intimate Partner Violence–Related Brain Injury Among Colombian Women

“…EMBRACED (PNINSULA Research Group, University of Granada; https://embracedproject.com and https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/661528/es) is a computerized, empirically derived battery, administered via an iPad, that includes a range of neuropsychological tests to assess different domains such as memory, attention, executive function, language, and orientation 15. We aimed to obtain preliminary data to encourage critically needed research in Colombia, as there are currently no data on IPV-related BIs in Colombia.…”

“…The specific tests selected for this study were chosen to replicate the tests and cognitive domains assessed in Valera and Berenbaum's study 8. Specifically, the tests used in this study corresponding to those used by Valera and Berenbaum8 are as follows: EMBRACED Digit Span Backward for the Digit Span subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised17 (working memory); EMBRACED TMT from the Army Individual Test Battery TMT-A and TMT-B18 (processing speed and cognitive flexibility); the Verbal Learning Test used for the CVLT15,19 (learning and memory). The EMBRACED battery does not have a measure of executive functioning that corresponds to the Ruff Figural Fluency Test used by Valera and Berenbaum 8…”

Working memory, episodic memory and sustained attention in women survivors of intimate partner violence in Spain: The Believe Battery

“…This is a 15-item self-report measure that assesses the severity and intensity of IPV in the past The present study employed the Believe Battery (http://projectbelieve.info), a free, online and comprehensive neuropsychological battery specifically developed for women victims and survivors of IPV. The Believe Battery includes evidence-based measures for neuropsychological functioning, which were based on the EMBRACED Project (Ibanez-Casas et al, 2023). Specifically, the cognitive domains assessed by this battery include memory, executive function, attention, language, motor and visuospatial abilities, perception, orientation, and social cognition.…”