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Strengths and Limitations of Performance-Based Assessments

Timothy Wolf, OTD, MSCI, OTR/L

May 16, 2013

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What are the strengths and limitations of Performance-Based Assessments?

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Strengths and Limitations of Performance-Based Assessments

One of the strengths is that we believe it has a high level of ecological validity.  That is the whole point of us doing it.  The limitations are it only provides insight into that activity.  As I mentioned, the activities have to be novel, but not new.  It has to be important to the client.  It cannot be completely new and out of the blue.  You can obviously get some information from the activity that could be relevant somewhere else.  If someone is doing the Complex Task Performance Assessment, you might get some information about how they might manage their bills, but that is not really what it was designed to look at.  You cannot retest with the alternate forms.  That is key and something that is abused out in practice and research. 

Once someone does these performance-based assessments, they know how to do them, and unless they have some type of profound memory deficit, they are going to remember.  The next time they do it, it will be easier.  It is like you and me learning a new activity.  Once you have done it once, they are getting better the second time.  We actually showed this in the CTPA.  We put that in the paper saying the people improved 40% within a week without us doing anything in between.  You cannot say that the person is getting better, because of your intervention when you just re-administered the assessment.  The problem is that we do not have alternate forms for a lot of these and that is something we need to work on. 


timothy wolf

Timothy Wolf, OTD, MSCI, OTR/L

Dr. Wolf received his B.S. in Health Science-Pre Occupational Therapy from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri and his Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) from the Program in Occupational Therapy at Washington University School of Medicine. While pursuing his OTD, he completed the Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Clinical Research Training Program (PICRT), a one-year intensive clinical investigation training program at Washington University School of Medicine sponsored by a T32 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As a result of his work in this program, he received his MS in Clinical Investigation from Washington University School of Medicine. He is the current recipient of a NIH-K12 career development award through the Comprehensive Opportunities in Rehabilitation Research Training (CORRT) program. Dr. Wolf is currently an Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy and Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine.  Dr. Wolf investigates the impact of mild stroke on a person’s ability to return to everyday life activities. In particular, the focus of his research is on improving an individual's ability to return to work post-mild stroke.   


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