Instrument

General description

Reliability data

Validity data

Finger Tapping Test (Reitan, 1969)

Using a specially adapted tapper and counter, a person is instructed to tap as rapidly as possible using the index finger of the dominant and non-dominant hand. Procedure call for five consecutive trials within a 5-point range with each hand (Reitan & Wolfson, 1985) .

Reliability coefficients range from .58 to .93 in normal and patient populations (Bornstein et al., 1987; Dikmen et al., 1999) ^a,c

Convergent validity; finger tapping correlates highly (r = .78) with Purdue peg placement (Triggs, Calvanio, Levine, Heaton, & Heilman, 2000) ^a,c

Grip Strength (Reitan & Wolfson, 1985)

Hand strength is measured by asking a person to squeeze a dynamometer in the palm of their hand.

Internal consistency, Chrombach’s alpha was .82 (Christensen, Mackinnon, Korten, & Jorn, 2001) . Reliability coefficient > .70 (Dikmen et al., 1999) ^a,c

Ecological validity; poor performance predictive of cognitive decline (MacDonald, Dixon, Cohen, & Hazlitt, 2004) and mortality in older adults (Anstey, Luszcz, Giles, & Andrews, 2001) ^a,c

Grooved Pegboard Test (Matthews & Klove, 1964)

Test of fine motor skills. Person inserts metal pegs as quickly as possible into 25 randomly positioned slots on a small metal board, first with the dominant and then the non-dominant hand.

Reliability coefficients range from .67 to .86 (Dikmen et al., 1999; Levine, Miller, Becker, Selnes, & Cohen, 2004) ^a,c

Ecological validity; pegboard performance associated activities of daily living in TBI (Farmer & Eakman, 1995) ^a,c