There's nothing new about the use of these mini tests of cognitive ability. They were very frequently used in PCA examinations to get a quick picture of some aspects of cognitive functioning and are part of the so-called "mini-mental state asssessment" which my big book of interesting medical thingies calls a 5 minute bedside test which is used as a screening tool. It was designed by three psychiatrists and published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. The questions listed are: Orientation: 1 point each for correct answers to time, day, date, month, year, and where you currently are (town eg). Registration: repeating names of up to 3 items named. Attention and calculation: serial 7s. Recall: the 3 items in the last test but one Language: name two ordinary objects; - repeat accurately "no ifs, ands or buts" - correctly carry out a three-stage command eg "With the first finger of your right hand touch your nose and then your left ear" - doctor writes "close your eyes" on a piece of paper and passes it to patient to do what it says. - Patient has to write a sentence and only scores if it makes sense and has at least one noun and a verb. - Doctor draws two intersecting pentagons with sides about 1 inch long and asks patient to copy it. The maximum total score if the patient does everything right is 30 points. A score under 23 picks up 90% of cognitive impairments with 10% false positives. It's said to correlate strongly with general intelligence, less good with problems caused by actual brain damage. So very respectable - if used in the right circumstances.
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