Benjamin J. Lovett

• BA, MS, PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Teachers College

Diagnoses of ADHD in adults continue to increase, and the number of college students with ADHD has risen in particular. Qualitative research on this population has been common, but it is not clear what conclusions can be drawn from this research base. We conducted a review of the qualitative research on college students with ADHD over a 20-year per...

Objective This study examined the relationships between self-reported ADHD symptoms, self-reported anxiety, and continuous performance test (CPT) performance. Method 128 postsecondary students referred for clinical evaluation for possible ADHD and related conditions completed the Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scale, the Behavior Assessment Scale for C...

Psychologists often perform evaluations on patients who are already being prescribed stimulant medication for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The evaluation may be sought to confirm the diagnosis or to determine specific treatment or accommodation needs. In these cases, psychologists are often asked whether the patient should take their m...

Test anxiety is a common concern in students of all ages, and over the past few decades, there has been debate about whether to consider test anxiety a formal psychological disorder, or even a disability under the law. The present study informs those debates with information about the base rates of different test anxiety symptoms in a large sample...

Children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are likely to exhibit substantial functional impairment in educational settings; on average, they receive lower grades and are also more likely to drop out of school, relative to their peers. However, a number of school-based interventions have been developed to address t...

Ensuring that educational tests are accessible to students with disabilities is a core aspect of fairness in assessment, regardless of the exact uses of the testing. Disability accommodations, as well as universally available accessibility features, can facilitate that access, but determining which supports to offer should be guided by sound empiri...

Students with disabilities are often given accommodations in testing situations (e.g., extended testing time). However, for many students with high-incidence disabilities, interventions can reduce the need for these accommodations, or serve as a helpful supplement to accommodations. Applied behavior analysis provides a framework for understanding h...

Data collected during psychoeducational evaluations can be compromised by response bias: clients not putting forth sufficient effort on tests, not being motivated to do well, or not being fully honest and careful when completing rating scales and contributing similar self-report data. Some of these problems apply to data from third-party informants...

Background Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) has been proposed to be either its own distinct disorder or a transdiagnostic process. Objective To examine SCT within ADHD (and its specific presentations) and internalizing disorders and its relationship with functional impairment, particularly when considered from a multidimensional perspective. Method...

Extended testing time is a common accommodation given to students with disabilities. However, little is known about whether students who are eligible for the accommodation actually use it, and with what effect. The present study used process data available from the digitally delivered 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathemat...

Objective There is increased concern for malingering in ADHD evaluations due to presence of incentives such as accommodations and medications. Although several validity tests are available to classify malingering in non-ADHD populations, there is no test with proven effectiveness to detect feigned ADHD. This study investigated the ability of the MA...

For psychoeducational evaluations to generate useful data, students must put forth sufficient effort on diagnostic tests, and they and their caregivers and teachers must respond honestly and carefully when asked about symptoms. These features are collectively known as response validity, a concept widely discussed in neuropsychological assessment bu...

Educational accommodations are frequently given to students with disabilities. For instance, students might be given a copy of class notes or provided additional time to complete a test. One purpose of accommodations is to improve educational equity, putting all students on equal footing. However, research on current accommodations practices raises...

The Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale screener is commonly used to determine if further evaluation of ADHD is required. However, despite use in college settings, the ASRS was not developed for this population, and limited relevant psychometric data exist. In this study, 190 college students completed the ASRS screener as well as a lengthier measure of t...

Objective: Two studies examined the psychometric properties of the Multidimensional ADHD Rating Scale (MARS), which assesses ADHD symptoms, related functional impairment, and symptom validity (SV). Method: Study 1 used MARS item responses from college students with and without ADHD (with some of the latter group assigned to feign ADHD) to create an...

It is our pleasure to introduce this special issue of the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology on the assessment of adult ADHD. We present a mix of empirical and review articles covering different aspects of the topic, all of them trying to offer useful guidance to practicing neuropsychologists, while also stimulating further resear...

Educational accommodations, which alter the manner in which instruction or assessments are administered, are often an appropriate part of a student’s academic program. However, accommodations are frequently overused and have significant limitations. De-implementing inappropriate accommodations is a complex task, but one made easier through a clear...

School psychologists often have reason to suspect that students may not be putting forth full effort during diagnostic tests, or that questionnaire or rating scale data are not credible. However, such suspicions must be tested carefully to yield data-based conclusions. Structured, empirically supported methods for assessing the “response validity”...

Information processing speed is commonly measured in intelligence and neuropsychological testing, and the scores from speed measures are considered in diagnostic and management recommendations for students with academic learning problems. However, this score usage often depends on assumptions about strong relationships between cognitive speed and t...

Objective Children and adolescents with ADHD often receive instruction and take tests using educational accommodations. This review aims to summarize and integrate the research literature on accommodations for this specific population. Method Electronic databases in medicine (MEDLINE), psychology (PsycINFO), and education (ERIC) were systematicall...

Research has suggested that many young adults can successfully feign ADHD, reporting clinically significant symptom levels and displaying deficits on cognitive tasks when asked to do so. Standalone performance validity tests (PVTs) have shown some success in identifying feigned ADHD, but these tests are rarely used in typical ADHD evaluation batter...

The purpose of this study was to assess whether sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) behaviors were associated with a unique impairment profile for college students after accounting for lifestyle (sleep, substance use, health) and mental health factors (attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], anxiety, depression). A general sample of 910 undergr...

A recent, widely publicized scandal involved students who obtained fraudulent diagnoses of learning disabilities in an effort to get accommodations on college admissions tests. Although the exact circumstances of the scandal are unusual, the methods used to obtain diagnoses and accommodations illustrate widespread problems with current policies. Th...

Objective: Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) refers to a set of symptoms that prior research has found to be related to several different psychological disorders, especially the predominantly inattentive presentation of ADHD. This study collected evidence relevant to the question of whether SCT is a distinct disorder. Method: College students (N = 910...

An increasing number of individuals are requesting disability accommodations on high-stakes licensing examinations, and neuropsychological evaluation reports are a frequent component of disability documentation. This study reviewed 103 requests for accommodations based on a learning disability (LD), submitted to the National Board of Osteopathic Me...

Diagnosticians who recommend educational accommodations for postsecondary students with learning, cognitive, and psychiatric disabilities often reference specific diagnostic test scores as a basis for the recommended accommodations. Moreover, accommodation decision-makers often follow diagnosticians’ lead and/or rely on the diagnostic scores themse...

Objective: This study compared the psychological profiles of college students who self-reported an ADHD diagnosis in contrast to students without a diagnosis who reported above-threshold ADHD symptoms. Method: A large sample of college students yielded four subgroups: students with a self-reported diagnosis who met symptom criteria (Diagnosed, n =...

Prior research supports the use of multiple types of evidence from multiple sources when assessing ADHD in adults. However, limited research has examined how to best integrate the resulting set of data into a well-supported diagnostic conclusion. Moreover, clients sometimes overreport symptoms or display low effort on performance tasks, further com...

Students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are frequently provided a separate room in which to take exams, to reduce external distractions. However, little research has explored the efficacy of this accommodation. In the present study, college students with (n = 27) and without (n = 42) ADHD diagnoses were administered two parall...

ADHD is a childhood disorder. However, recent research suggests that some individuals have challenges that persist well into adulthood. Some adults may have had ADHD during childhood but were not diagnosed at that time. The need to diagnosis ADHD in adults exists. This article presents a model for the assessment of ADHD in adults, based on the five...

Objective: To investigate whether administration of a common ADHD screener followed by generic feedback would affect college students’ subsequent symptom reports and cognitive performance. Method: Participants were 157 college students randomly assigned to an experimental group—which completed the World Health Organization Adult ADHD Self-Report Sc...

Initial diagnoses of ADHD in adulthood have increased tremendously in recent years. Making such diagnoses accurately is challenging because ADHD is a childhood-onset disorder and because many adults have an incentive for obtaining a diagnosis (e.g., access to stimulant medication or disability accommodations). Certain elements of a forensic perspec...

Test anxiety leads to requests for accommodations under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), but many testing entities have expressed skepticism about whether test anxiety qualifies as a disability. This article addresses three legal issues raised by the inclusion of test anxiety under ADA: whether test anxiety is a mental impairment, whether...

Adrian Brock (2017) critiques my article (Lovett, 2006) on the new history of psychology. However, his critique repeatedly misrepresents my views. Moreover, he misrepresents the views of some new historians of psychology. I use a variety of examples from his paper to illustrate his misrepresentations, and I reply on each of these points. I conclude...

Learning disability (LD) evaluations are frequently requested by adult clients, either to update previous diagnoses, or to address new or longstanding academic concerns that had never prompted a formal evaluation in the past. This chapter shows how to use the Woodcock–Johnson IV (WJ IV) battery when evaluating LDs in adults. After covering relevant...

The measurement of functional impairment is hardly a mere academic enterprise, given the current demand for clinical evaluations of disability status. For instance, witness the recent controversies over US military veterans seeking benefits through certification of psychiatric disability (e.g., McNally & Frueh, 2012) or individuals convicted of mur...

Maria, a fifth grader with a measured IQ in the gifted range (135), has reading skills that are only slightly above average (a standard score of 108). There is a significant discrepancy between her ability and her level of achievement. Does this mean that Brenda has a learning disability in the area of reading? Is a score of 108 a deficit in relati...

Objective: This study examined whether college students who reported higher levels of sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) symptoms were actually more “sluggish” in their performance while completing speeded cognitive and academic measures. Method: College students (N = 253) completed self-reports of SCT and their reading and test-taking abilities as wel...

Students often feel time pressure when taking tests, and students with disabilities are sometimes given extended time testing accommodations, but little research has been done on the factors that affect students’ test-taking speed. In the present study, 253 students at two colleges completed measures of processing speed, reading fluency, and self-r...

This study assessed the test-taking skills of 776 high school students, 35 of whom were diagnosed with learning disabilities (LD). Students completed a computerized battery of timed reading tests as well as scales that assess test anxiety and test-taking perceptions. Students with LD obtained lower scores than the nondisabled group on all of the re...

Objective: Research has identified a relationship between sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) symptoms and symptoms of ADHD, anxiety, and depression; however, no study has controlled for symptoms of ADHD, anxiety, and depression when examining impairment related to SCT symptoms. This study aimed to examine (a) the extent to which functional impairment a...

Written essays are a common feature of classroom and high stakes standardized tests at many age levels. However, little is known about how small alterations in the writing task affect students' writing, an issue made more important by the increasing use of task alterations for students with disabilities. In the present study, 140 college students c...

Introduction As the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) was being prepared, there was a great deal of public discussion about the revision process. Th ere had been articles in newspapers, coverage on radio shows, and, of course, a proliferation of Internet pages and postings. One of the facts commonly me...

Once students with disabilities leave high school, they must take proactive steps to document their disabilities to educational institutions or employers when requesting accommodations. The Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) has been the principal organization offering suggestions on documentation requirements, and AHEAD’s recen...

College students with (n = 137) and without disabilities (n = 475) were surveyed about their perceptions of using various types of test accommodations. Results indicated that extended time was perceived as having a positive effect by the most students (>87% of both groups), followed by separate room testing and extra breaks (>60% of both groups). S...

In this chapter the authors provide a discussion of the very difficult concept of comorbidity in child and adolescent psychiatric diagnosis. Comorbidity can imply deficits with the diagnostic system including but not limited to unrealistic diagnostic criteria. This issue is central to many debates about child and adolescent psychiatric diagnosis. T...

This resource is the first in the IPPP series to explore this highly complex topic. Though many of the ethical issues important in adult mental health are of relevance in the child, there are a considerable number of issues special to children. Many of the dilemmas faced pertain to diagnosis, treatment, the protection of the child, as well as the c...

This study examined the supporting documentation submitted by students with learning disability (LD) diagnoses. The participants were 210 students who were enrolled in a college support program for students with disabilities at a private liberal arts college. Findings showed that although most students submitted a psychoeducational evaluation, fewe...

Increasing numbers of students with learning disability and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnoses are applying for accommodations in postsecondary education and employment settings. However, students’ documentation of these conditions is often substandard. One possible reason for this is that clinicians have failed to apply prop...

Objective: To investigate the relationship between ADHD symptoms, executive functioning problems, and benefit from extended time testing accommodations. Method: College students completed a battery of measures assessing processing speed and reading fluency, reading comprehension (under two different time limits), symptoms of ADHD, executive functio...

This study examined whether a large group of postsecondary students participating in a support program for students classified as having learning disabilities (LD) met criteria for five objective diagnostic models for LD: IQ-achievement discrepancy (1.0 SD, 1.5 SD, and >2.0 SD) models, a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV...

Researchers and advocates who argue for increased recognition of gifted students with learning disabilities (G/LD students) often frame their arguments in terms of the need to increase the diversity and inclusiveness of gifted education. However, the criteria used to identify G/LD students are sufficiently vague and fluid that the G/LD category can...

Students with disabilities are often given tests under accommodated conditions to reduce the effect of their disability on their scores. Students' perceptions of their own accommodations are important for several reasons and have been the topic of a number of research studies. Some studies have tested students under multiple conditions and asked fo...

The 2008 amendments to the Americans With Disabilities Act have now been followed by implementation guidelines from the Department of Justice. These guidelines take strong positions on how testing entities should review requests for testing accommodations from examinees with disabilities. In this article, themes from the guidelines are evaluated ag...

We report on the development and initial validation of the Moralization of Everyday Life Scale (MELS), designed to measure variations in people's assignment of moral weight to commonplace behaviors. In Study 1, participants reported their judgments for a large number of potential moral infractions in everyday life; principal components analysis rev...

Social psychological research suggests that because of concerns about being perceived in stereotypical ways, people may experience negative affect and diminished attention and cognitive capacity during interracial interactions. The authors discuss this research in relation to therapy and assessment and also offer practical suggestions for ensuring...

Students with disabilities often receive test accommodations in schools and on high-stakes tests. Students with learning disabilities (LD) represent the largest disability group in schools, and extended time the most common test accommodation requested by such students. This pairing persists despite controversy over the validity of extended time as...

College students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often request and receive extended time to complete high-stakes exams and classroom tests. This study examined the performances and behaviors of college students on computerized simulations of high-stakes exams. Thirty-five college students with ADHD were compared to 185 typical...

Much has been written about gifted students with learning disabilities, but there have been few large-scale empirical investigations, and the concept has proven controversial. The authors reviewed the available empirical literature on these students, focusing on (a) the criteria by which the students were identified and (b) the students' performanc...

An increasing number of students are being diagnosed with auditory processing disorder (APD), but the school psychology literature has largely neglected this controversial condition. This article reviews research on APD, revealing substantial concerns with assessment tools and diagnostic practices, as well as insufficient research regarding many cl...

In the context of psychiatric diagnosis, operationists claim that mental disorders are nothing more than the satisfying of objective diagnostic criteria, whereas realists claim that mental disorders are latent entities that are detected by applying those criteria. The implications of this distinction are substantial in actual clinical situations, s...

Gifted students often fail to achieve at a superior level in one or more academic areas. In this reply to an article by Assouline, Nicpon, and Whiteman, the author reviews various explanations for this phenomenon, including motivation/interest, learning opportunities, and error in measuring students’ ability—achievement discrepancies. The author al...

Standardized achievement testing is increasingly common in educational and industrial settings. K-12 students take state assessments to comply with federal education laws. Many colleges administer assessments to place incoming students in initial courses and ensure that graduates have benefited from instruction. Professions such as law and medicine...

Four studies document underestimations of the prevalence of others' negative emotions and suggest causes and correlates of these erroneous perceptions. In Study 1a, participants reported that their negative emotions were more private or hidden than were their positive emotions; in Study 1b, participants underestimated the peer prevalence of common...

Extended time is one of the most common testing accommodations provided to students with disabilities. It is also controversial; critics of extended time accommodations argue that extended time is used too readily, without concern for how it changes the skills measured by tests, leading to scores that cannot be compared fairly with those of other s...

Moral sensitivity has generally been interpreted in a normative sense, as the ability to notice moral features present in a situation. This paper outlines an alternative, descriptive conception of moral sensitivity: the levels of moralisation model. This model describes four qualitatively distinct levels at which a preference can be held: no morali...

Cramer et al.'s account of comorbidity comes with a substantive philosophical view concerning the nature of psychological disorders. Although the network account is responsive to problems with extant approaches, it faces several practical and conceptual challenges of its own, especially in cases where the individual differences in network structure...

Increasing numbers of students are being diagnosed as simultaneously gifted and having a learning disability, although the identification procedures and characteristics of these students are matters of continuing debate. In the present study, postsecondary students with learning disability diagnoses (N = 357) were grouped according to their IQ scor...

The purpose of this study is to provide an up-to-date review of the literature on postsecondary students classified as having learning disabilities (LD). The review focused on the criteria by which students were classified as LD and the cognitive and achievement characteristics of the participants. From almost 400 studies, only 30% were empirical (...

The measurement of functional impairment has become far more than an academic enterprise given the current demand for clinical evaluations of disability status. Individuals seeking access to legal accommodations in school or at work are pursuing assessments that establish their qualification as having a disability. To satisfy those requests, clinic...

Brenda, a fifth grader with a measured IQ in the gifted range (135), has reading skills that are only slightly above average (a standard score of 108). There is a significant discrepancy between her ability and her level of achievement. Does this mean that Brenda has a learning disability in the area of reading? Is a score of 108 a deficit in relat...

Variability in responsiveness to academic interventions is a common phenomenon in school psychology practice, but the variables associated with this responsiveness are not well understood. Reinforcement sensitivity, a generalized tendency to learn quickly in reward contingency situations, is one variable for increased understanding. In the present...

This study examined the consequences of classifying postsecondary students as learning disabled (LD) using five objective sets of criteria: IQ-achievement discrepancies (1.0 to 1.49 SD, 1.5 to 1.99 SD, and >or= 2.0 SD), DSM-IV criteria, and chronic educational impairment beginning in childhood. The participants were 378 postsecondary students from...

Working memory capacity (WMC) has received attention across many areas of psychology, in part because of its relationship with intelligence. The mechanism underlying the relationship is unknown, but the nature of typical WMC tasks has led to two hypothesized mechanisms: secondary-memory processes (e.g., search and retrieval) and the maintenance of...

Testing accommodations have become a common component of services for students with disabilities at all levels of education. This study examined the effect of a common testing accommodation-extended time-on the reading comprehension test performance of high school students. Sixty-four students, half of whom had learning disabilities (LDs) in the ar...

Objective: Previous research has found ADHD symptoms to be common in the general population but has not compared endorsement of symptoms between ADHD and non-ADHD groups. This study examines self-reported ADHD symptoms and academic complaints in college students. Method: Students without (n = 496) and with ADHD (n = 38) completed a questionnaire co...

School psychology has long benefited from the insights of social psychologists. Lab research and field studies have developed concepts such as the elaboration-likelihood model of persuasion, the fundamental attribution error, and stereotype threat, all of which have influenced school psychological theory and practice. One contemporary social psycho...

Test accommodations such as extended time are presumed to reduce the impact of a disability, while not affecting test scores of the general population. This study examined the effects of an extended time (time and one-half) accommodation on the mathematics performance of fifth- to seventh-grade students with and without attention deficit hyperactiv...

Ethical guidelines require school psychologists to ensure that their assessment practices are nondiscriminatory, but typical discussions on this topic neglect the possible discriminatory effects of cultural stereotypes on assessment results. Recent research on stereotype threat shows that students' knowledge of stereotype-based negative expectation...

Aggressive children and adolescents are often hypothesized to have lower levels of empathy than comparable nonaggressive peers. A review of 17 studies examining the relationship between affective empathy and aggressive or delinquent behavior was conducted to determine the validity of this hypothesis. The studies offered conflicting findings, even w...

Punishment-based interventions are among the most controversial treatments in the applied behavior analysis literature. The controversy concerns both the efficacy and the ethics of punishment. Five hundred randomly selected members of the Association for Behavior Analysis were sent a survey concerning their views on the efficacy and ethics of punis...

More than 20 years ago, psychologists first described gifted students with learning disabilities (LD). In the past decade, several sets of identification criteria have been proposed for this population. Many of the suggested assessment practices are unsupported by research in psychoeducational assessment, and some have been directly contradicted by...

In the past 30 years, the "new history of psychology" and its adherents have advocated a critical approach to scholarship, increased use of primary sources, a focus on sociopolitical forces, and the active inclusion of psychologists from underrepresented groups. This article argues that many scholars exaggerate the differences between old and new h...