INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW

Overall Plan of the Web Source

The intent of this section is to provide the reader some insights as to goals as well as the foundation for the material presented in this Web page.

This project is supported by The University of Memphis (UM) and the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology (ABPN). It evolved out of the need to provide basic information to psychologists who are truly interested in acquiring skills in neuropsychology but did not have the opportunity during their predoctoral training, as well as to provide information to others with some neuropsychological skills who wish to develop them further.

Since its inception, ABPN has been interested in, not only evaluating competency, but assisting psychologists in developing the necessary skills. Clearly some plan was needed that could provide feedback as to current level of functioning, identify areas of weakness and then provide resources for training. We have implemented a mentoring model which appears to work well in aiding in the development of clinical skills but is often lacking in providing the necessary foundation material.

In attempting to satisfy these deficiencies it became apparent that seminars, workshops, and conference proceedings could not effectively meet this need. Complete retraining was also often not a realistic goal nor a necessity. Rather, what is needed is a detailed outline of study with references, self-testing, and individual feedback. The World Wide Web appears to provide an excellent opportunity to present the material used in neuropsychology courses to anyone who wishes to obtain it. It is accessible to almost anyone throughout the world, can provide material and references so that a person may progress at their own rate, and can include tests over the material to provide immediate feedback.

The conceptual & technical author of this series is Charles J. Long and the contributing authors are all of the neuropsychologists who have published their research, all of the graduate students over the past 25 years who have asked the critical questions and actually read the research that was published as well as conduct research on their own, and the over 10,000 patients and many thousand research subjects who provided the basis for much of the information to be presented.

The contribution of The University of Memphis evolves from the development of a neuropsychology training program which has been in existence since 1972, support of the Web pages by the University computer system, and the financial support of the personnel involved.

This Web course is actually based on the integration of 6 pre-doctoral courses in neuropsychology. It begins with physiological psychology and brain behavior relationships which is available on the Web as Physiological Psychology In addition the outline of the training plan for neuropsychology at UM can be reviewed.

After this section is mastered the student can then focus on the material in the neuropsychology sequence which deals with issues and procedures.

The Web pages were initially developed to conform to Netscape 2 using frames and other techniques that were either not available of other Web Browsers or were too complex for small screens. It was, thus, modified to present material in a more generic format suitable to all systems. Since Web support material are radically changing, these components will be integrated at a later time when most users can take advantage of them.

It should also be noted that while complex color figures can be presented via the Web, they take considerable time to transmit and thus this series is designed so that figures can be brought up on command, otherwise, the viewer can deal exclusively with text.

Finally, it should be noted that this material will be presented much as a lecture series rather than written text. References will be provided at the end of sections and additional readings will be outlined but individual references will not be linked to each point.

PHYSIOLOGICAL

NEUROPSYCHOLOGY

NEUROPATHOLOGY

ISSUES

ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

THE DATA BASE

DECISION STRATEGIES

ASSESSMENT ISSUES

TREATMENT

INTRODUCTION & OVERVIEW

Overall Plan of the Web Source