Effects of a Third Party Observer During Neuropsychological Assessment

Several studies have reported that the presence of a third party observer during neuropsychological assessment negatively affects the test performance of the examinee. A previous study (Constantinou, Ashendorf, & McCaffrey, 2002) demonstrated that the presence of an audio recorder as the third party observer during neuropsychological assessment also has a negative effect on the performance. The present study was designed to investigate whether or not a video recorder as the third party observer affects neuropsychological test performance. Results showed that the presence of a video recorder had a negative impact on memory test scores. This study confirms findings from the social facilitation literature that the presence of a video camera impacts task performance, and also replicates our earlier work with an audio recorder as third party observer.