a Neuropsychology Lab , Western State Hospital , Staunton , VA , USA.
b Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences , University of Virginia Medical Center , Charlottesville , VA , USA.
Clin Neuropsychol. 2017 Nov;31(8):1432-1448. doi: 10.1080/13854046.2017.1317032. Epub 2017 May 17.
A paucity of peer-reviewed research exists regarding the relation between cognitive functioning and adjudicative competence, despite increasing awareness of cognitive deficits associated with serious mental illness. This retrospective study sought to add to and expand upon existing research by considering performance validity and court determinations of competence, when available.
We compared demographic and cognitive variables of a group of defendants with presumed valid testing admitted to an inpatient psychiatric facility for evaluation of adjudicative competence and referred for neuropsychological evaluation (n = 45) and compared individuals determined by the evaluator and/or the court to be competent (n = 30) and incompetent (n = 15).
Defendants who were incompetent were more likely to be diagnosed with a cognitive disorder, with a medium effect size. There was a difference in tests of immediate and delayed memory as measured by the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), with medium to large effects, and high delayed memory scores were helpful in ruling out incompetence (Negative predictive power = 85.71%).
These results provide support for the relationship between cognitive functioning and trial competence, particularly at high and low levels of performance.
尽管人们越来越意识到与严重精神疾病相关的认知缺陷，但关于认知功能与裁决能力之间关系的同行评审研究仍然很少。本回顾性研究试图通过考虑可用的绩效有效性和法庭对能力的裁决，来补充和扩展现有研究。
我们比较了一组被认为测试有效的被告的人口统计学和认知变量，这些被告被收入住院精神病院接受裁决能力评估，并被转介进行神经心理评估（n=45），并比较了评估者和/或法庭确定的有能力（n=30）和无能力（n=15）的个体。
无能力的被告更有可能被诊断为认知障碍，具有中等效应大小。在即时和延迟记忆测试方面存在差异，可衡量重复性神经心理状态评估测试（RBANS），具有中到大的影响，较高的延迟记忆分数有助于排除无能力（阴性预测力=85.71%）。
这些结果为认知功能与审判能力之间的关系提供了支持，特别是在表现的高低水平上。
