Visual Object and Space Perception Battery (VOSP)

Elizabeth K Warrington and Merle James

Neuropsychological investigations have established that highly specific impairments of cognitive function can occur following brain damage.

A comprehensive neuropsychological assessment must reflect this specificity and include tasks that focus on specific cognitive functions in addition to complex cognitive skills. In this context no individual’s profile would be complete without an assessment of object and space perception.

The Visual Object and Space Perception Battery (VOSP) consists of eight tests each designed to assess a particular aspect of object or space perception, while minimising the involvement of other cognitive skills.

The VOSP will enable an assessor to compare the scores of a subject with those of a normal control sample and those obtained by patients with right- and left-cerebral lesions.

Although a theoretical issue was the original motivation for each of these tests, it was their pragmatic strength in terms of their selectivity and sensitivity that determined their selection for inclusion in the battery.

They are all un-timed and should be administered at a pace suitable to the individual patient. The tests can be administered singly, in groups, or as a whole battery; and, apart from the initial screening test, in any order.

Each test has been developed, validated and standardised in the Psychology Department at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square London where Elizabeth Warrington is Professor Emeritus of Clinical Neuropsychology and Merle James is a Clinical Neuropsychologist.

Their associative work began in 1962 and a number of the tests in this battery are published for the first time after much demand by practising clinicians; others are new tests that have been developed in recent years.

VOSP can be used in conjunction with the CORVIST to provide a comprehensive assessment of visuoperceptual ability.

Citations

The VOSP is widely used and has been cited in well over 250 publications. It is included in the following book on neuropsychological assessment as one of the standard tests of visual perception.

Lezak, M. D., Howieson D. B., Loring D. W., Hannay H. J. & Fischer J. S. (2004) Neuropsychological Assessment, 4th Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.