A statistical analysis of board certification in Clinical Neuropsychology

In this paper, we use tools from decision theory to evaluate the effectiveness of the current psychology board certification process used by the American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology (ABCN). These analyses indicate that ABCN’s current process is likely to be failing to certify too many competently trained candidates, and identifying relatively few truly competent neuropsychologists. In fact, we estimate that ABCN is only certifying between 16 and 52% of competent clinical neuropsychologists. This is in contrast to the processes of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), after which ABCN has indicated that it models its examination. ABMS estimates that 89% of all practicing physicians are board-certified by one of their member boards. Based on our analyses, specific recommendations for change are offered for credentialing the profession of neuropsychology.