Comparison of the performance of normal individuals and survivors of traumatic brain injury on repeat administrations of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

Repeat administrations of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) are a common clinical practice to assess changes in cognitive functions of individuals recovering from traumatic brain injury (TBI). Yet, little is even known about the performance of healthy individuals on repeat administrations of the test. The present study compared the effects of repeat administration of the WCST in normal individuals and survivors of traumatic brain injury. Normal participants were administered the WCST twice, with a 5-month interval between testings and the findings were compared to the data from patients with TBI tested twice. Normal controls only modestly improved their performance on repeat testing. In constrast, using a reliability of change (RC) index, TBI survivors demonstrated clinically meaningful gains in performance.