Use of demographic corrections in neuropsychological interpretation: How standard are standard scores?

The interpretation of neuropsychological data has increasingly becoming reliant on the use of standard scores. However, the explicit demographics from which the standard scores are derived are not always comparable. Despite the didactic knowledge of clinicians regarding the effects of demographic information on test performance, the quantification of these effects have only recently become realized with the introduction of comprehensive databases. We present a discussion regarding this issue and offer some direction for the clinician in this regard.