The Neuropsychology and Assessment project is working to improve methods used for assessing and monitoring cognitive performance following brain injury, and the experience of adjustment to that injury for patients and their families.
The project includes the development and optimisation of tools for assessing cognitive performance in people with neurological and psychiatric impairment and in the neurologically healthy population. It has now expanded to include cognitive rehabilitation and the assessment of inner speech in post-stroke aphasia.
Over the past few years our team has been at the forefront of efforts to improve the precision of psychometric instruments for estimating pre-injury or premorbid cognitive abilities in patients with neurological conditions. This work has included restandardisation of existing tools against the gold-standard test battery for measuring current intelligence, exploitation of a genetic algorithm for improving the efficiency of existing tests, thereby reducing administration time and minimising fatigue in patients undertaking them. Other research includes development of a more holistic understanding of the repercussions of brain injury for patients and their families, and a process evaluation of an intervention for promoting independence in dementia.
In their most recent publication in the area of neuropsychological test development, Ian van der Linde and Peter Bright discuss the prediction limits of the National Adult Reading Test (and its international variants) for estimating premorbid IQ. The article also offers potential solutions for improving predictive accuracy for individuals who performed towards the tails of the IQ distribution prior to their neurological impairment.
Sharon Buckland, Emma Kaminskiy and Peter Bright have published an article in Brain Injury, exploring, using thematic analysis, the experience of adjustment following brain injury. The importance of this research lies in its focus on the repercussions for outcomes and adjustments operating not only for the individual with brain injury but also for the wider family group.
Danielle Wyman, Laurie Butler, Peter Bright, and a team from the University of London, Exeter University, Dalhie University, the University of Bradford, and other institutions have published a process evaluation of the NIDUS-Family goal-setting and individualized support intervention aimed at promoting independence in dementia.
Aminu, A., Aspell, J., Sa, DV, & Bright, P. (2025). Estimation of premorbid intelligence in schizophrenia: A systematic literature review. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 47(4), 327-371. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803395.2025.2525281.
Buckland, S., Kaminskiy, E., & Bright, P. (2024). Redefining adjustment after acquired brain injury. Brain Injury, 39, 221-232. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699052.2024.2423760.
van der Linde, I., & Bright, P. (2024). The prediction limits of the National Adult Reading Test and its abbreviated and international variants. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 30(9), 812-818. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617724000420.
Wyman, D., Butler, L. T., Morgan-Trimmer, S., Bright, P., Barber, J., Budgett, J., ... & Cooper, C. (2024). Process evaluation of a new psychosocial goal-setting and manualised support intervention for Independence in dementia (NIDUS-family). Age and Ageing, 53(8), afae181. https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afae181.
van der Linde, I., & Bright, P. (2018). A genetic algorithm to find optimal reading test word subsets for estimating full-scale IQ. PLoS One, 13(10), e0205754. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205754.
Bright, P., Hale, E., Gooch, V. J., Myhill, T., & van der Linde, I. (2018). The National Adult Reading Test: restandardisation against the Wechsler adult intelligence scale—fourth edition. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 28(6), 1019-1027. https://doi.org/10.1080/09602011.2016.1231121.