Wk. Anger et al., HUMAN BEHAVIORAL-ASSESSMENT IN NEUROTOXICOLOGY - PRODUCING APPROPRIATE TEST-PERFORMANCE WITH WRITTEN AND SHAPING INSTRUCTIONS, Neurotoxicology and teratology, 18(4), 1996, pp. 371-379
Neurotoxic effects are of such breadth and complexity that functional
biomarkers (behavioral tests) that integrate many areas of the nervous
system predominate in human neurotoxicology research. The increasing
distribution of chemical and other manufacturing throughout the world,
particularly in developing nations, suggests the acute need to develo
p biomarkers for chemical exposures and effects that can be employed i
nternationally. A language-free method for training performance on beh
avioral tests is described, which holds promise for international rese
arch that circumvents the vagaries of translation. Four behavioral tes
ts were administered to 74-114 adult US subjects. Procedures, collecti
vely termed shaping, produced effective performance on three tests [Sy
mbol Digit, Vigilant Attention Test (VAT), Digit Span Forward and Back
ward], and produced appropriate but unacceptably slow performance in i
nitial testing on the Simple Reaction Time test. Effective performance
on the Symbol-Digit test also was produced by shaping instructions, w
ithout assistance from examiners, in small groups of residents of Taip
ei (Taiwan) and US children between the ages of 5 and 16.