Adoption of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology uniform labeling of performance test scores in Norway: Towards a global standard?

Objectives

To describe the process resulting in the implementation of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology's (AACN) recommendations of uniform labeling of performance test scores in Norway and the challenges encountered in translating the AACN test score labels into Norwegian. In 2021, the Norwegian Neuropsychological Society (NNS) launched a working group to establish and recommend a system of qualitative labels to describe results from performance-based tests with normal and non-normal distributions. This initiative was largely inspired by the AACN consensus statement, published in The Clinical Neuropsychologist by Guilmette et al. in 2020.

Results

The working group recommended that the NNS should adopt the AACN uniform test score labels. However, the test score labels proved challenging to translate into Norwegian and several alternatives were considered. At the NNS annual meeting in 2023 consensus was reached and the recommended test labels were subsequently published in the NNS Guidelines and Principles for Clinical Neuropsychological Practice in 2024. Conclusions/

Importance

This is the second formal attempt by a professional neuropsychological community to make recommendations for uniform performance test score labels. This might also represent the first small step towards a global standard of test labeling.