B – 148 The Effect of Test Administration Type on Visuospatial Performance in Neuropsychology Patients

Abstract Objective There is minimal research on how test administration location affects performance on visuospatial tests. This study examined the difference in performance between administration groups using data from the National Neuropsychology Network. Method This study compared the visuospatial test performance of 3122 clinical subjects, across 11 tests and subtests. Participants were categorized by test administration type: in person with personal protective equipment (In Clinic PPE), or virtually (TeleNP Home). We hypothesized that the administration method of the visuospatial tests would affect the performance of participants given the novelty of the clinic environment. Results Using a Bonferroni-corrected significance threshold of p< 0.0045, univariate analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) revealed that there were significant main effects, showing higher performance for patients in the TeleNP Home group versus the In-Clinic PPE groups on the BVMT Delayed Recall trial, BVMT total score, JLO, WMS-IV Older Adult Visual Reproduction I, WMS-IV Older Adult Visual Reproduction II (OA-VR-II), WAIS Matrix Reasoning (MR), WAIS Symbol Search, and WAIS Coding. The BVMT Delayed Recall trial, BVMT Total Score, WAIS Visual Puzzles, and WAIS Symbol Search had covariate effects of both age and education. The WMS-IV OA-VR-II and WAIS MR had a covariate effect of education. The JLO had a covariate effect of age. See attached table for numerical results. Conclusion Significant test performance differences suggest that patients at home may score higher than in-clinic. This may be a limitation when clinicians assess patient performance on tests. Further research on relationships between performance, administration type, and demographics are necessary to determine limiting factors for performance.