Short Parallel Assessments of Neuropsychological Status (SPANS)

Dr Gerald Burgess

The Short Parallel Assessments of Neuropsychological Status (or 'SPANS') is a short battery of cognitive tasks that produce seven reliable index scores including Orientation, Attention/Concentration, Language, Memory/Learning, Visuo-Motor Performance, Efficiency and Cognitive Flexibility. The assessment includes two alternate versions, SPANS A and SPANS B, for reliable retest while minimising practice effects.

Features include:

• Possesses alternate versions (A & B) developed from precise specifications for practical and trustworthy retest
• Developed directly from clinical experience and review of the literature
• Ability to adapt testing to a briefer or hypothesis-driven assessment without sacrificing norm-referenced interpretation
• Full SPANS administration takes 35 minutes, or highly sensitive and specific ‘brief’ version takes 15 minutes.
• Interpretative guidelines provided for patients with conditions known to affect test performance, such as visual, motor and/or language disturbance, or ‘yes/no’ responding only
• Screens for neurological syndromes including aphasia, agnosia, neglect, and amnesia

• Few manipulatives means the test is conducive to bedside or office-based assessment

Subtest selection was derived from clinical experience and common referral questions such as to aid rehabilitation/management planning and assessing mental capacity, and extensive interpretation guidelines and special considerations are provided in the test manual. Standardised interpretation (T scores and percentiles) for each index score is available for four age groups, 18-32, 33-50, 51-64, and 65-74. The SPANS demonstrates very good convergent and divergent validity, sensitivity and specificity, and discrimination between left and right hemisphere impairment.

See the SPANS overview presentation for more information on the history and development of the SPANS.