The first editorial for Brain Impairment was entitled ‘Landmark development’. Published in May 2000, the editorial both told a story and painted a context. In two paragraphs it recounted the pioneering work of Professor John Walsh and the history of the first two decades of the Australian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment (ASSBI), culminating in the foundation of the journal. In telling this story, the context for the journal was also outlined. Reflecting the nature of ASSBI, the journal would aim to be multidisciplinary and to address the full range of conditions that affect brain function across the lifespan.

Primary objective: Social cognition underlies social skills and can be disrupted in numerous developmental and acquired brain disorders during childhood and adolescence. Despite this, there are few tools to assess social cognition clinically in this age group. This study examined adolescent performance on The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT), a valid measure of social cognition in adults.

Design: Cross-sectional design examining performance on Parts 1, 2 and 3 of TASIT (and alternate forms) in Australian girls and boys with varying levels of English familiarity.

Methods: 665 schoolchildren from private and government schools were administered TASIT subtests. Of these, 464 students aged 13–15 were selected to provide normative data. Scores from a further 97 provided information about the effects of lack of English familiarity.

Results: The two Forms of TASIT were statistically equivalent for two of the three parts. Adolescents performed lower than adults, although the differences were not large. Some incremental effects were seen for chronological age. Gender effects were apparent on all subtests. Lack of English familiarity (i.e., English not spoken at home) reduced scores a further 6–13% relative to high English proficiency.

Conclusions: TASIT appears to be suitable for adolescents. Norms are best aggregated across ages in adolescence and stratified according to gender.

An important aspect of cognitive functioning that is often impaired following traumatic brain injury (TBI) is visuospatial learning and memory. The Austin Maze task is a measure of visuospatial learning that has a long history in both clinical neuropsychological practice and research, particularly in individuals with TBI. The aim of this study was to evaluate visuospatial learning deficits following TBI using a new computerised version of the Austin Maze task. Twenty-eight individuals with moderate-to-severe TBI were compared to 28 healthy controls on this task, together with alternative neuropsychological measures, including the WAIS-III Digit Symbol and Digit Span subtests, the Trail Making Test, WMS-III Logical Memory, and Rey Osterrieth Complex Figure Test. The results demonstrated that TBI individuals performed significantly more poorly on the Austin Maze task than control participants. The Austin Maze task also demonstrated good convergent and divergent validity with the alternative neuropsychological measures. Thus, the computerised version of the Austin Maze appears to be a sensitive measure that can detect visuospatial learning impairments in individuals with moderate-to-severe TBI. The new computerised version of the task offers much promise in that it is more accessible and easier to administer than the conventional form of the test.

Assessment of executive functions, such as planning, often relies on tasks such as the Tower of Hanoi, which assess plan execution but not planning knowledge. Survivors of brain injury may perform within normal ranges on plan execution tasks yet have profound deficits in planning knowledge required for daily life. We examined survivors of brain injury and non-injured participants on an errand-planning task, to assess planning knowledge, and on a reading comprehension task, to distinguish inference-based knowledge of planning versus physical cause and effect. Errand-planning performance discriminated survivors of brain injury from non-injured participants. Additionally, survivors with higher scores performed similarly to non-injured participants on both inference tasks, whereas survivors with lower scores did not discriminate these two types of inferences. Findings suggest that the errand-planning task may be a useful measure of planning comprehension for survivors of brain injury and suggest a cognitive retraining strategy.

Distinguishing the comprehension of goal-directed actions from the enactment of those actions is the mental stage of planning, which we identify as planning knowledge. This distinction allows rehabilitation efforts to utilise reading comprehension of a fictional character's plans as a possible cognitive retraining tool. Hypothesising that comprehension of physical cause and effect is relatively intact in brain injury survivors, we compared survivors with high vs. low scores on the errand-planning task for comprehension of inferences based on physical cause and effect versus planning knowledge domains. Results indicate that those survivors with high errand-planning scores formed inferences from both knowledge domains, while survivors with low errand-planning scores were unable to form knowledge-based inferences. These findings suggest that a rehabilitation focus on comprehension of actions towards a goal state may retrain survivors’ skill at the mental stage of planning.

Various studies have shown the efficacy of errorless learning (EL) in teaching patients with dementia a wide variety of skills and everyday tasks, with some studies showing beneficial effects and others reporting limited or no advantage. However, EL procedures vary greatly and, to date, no clinical guidelines or manuals are available. Here, we present a nationwide survey exploring the interest in, and feasibility of, EL in dementia care in The Netherlands. Based on the survey results and available evidence in the literature, we subsequently drafted an EL manual and had this concept manual evaluated in a Delphi round using the AGREE instrument. Forty-five health professionals associated with 22 dementia care facilities in The Netherlands, including those survey respondents who had piloted an EL intervention in accordance with the concept manual and an eight-strong expert panel representing various disciplines, deemed EL to be meaningful and feasible for use in dementia care and their residential facilities. Although our manual was favourably received, future studies are required to examine how EL can best be implemented in clinical practice and to determine the optimal outcome measures and quality indicators to reliably evaluate intervention outcomes and to consider the cost-effectiveness of the approach.

This paper briefly reviews the history and purposes of neuropsychological assessment, as well as advancements in this area, and discusses the development of neuropsychological tests, using examples developed by the author and his colleagues to measure different aspects of human memory. These include the Shum Visual Learning Test, the Australian Retrograde Memory Test, the Comprehensive Assessment of Prospective Memory and the Virtual Reality Prospective Memory Task. The intended uses and psychometric properties of these tests, as well as examples of their use in research and clinical settings, will also be discussed. The paper will conclude with recommendations and advice on the development of neuropsychological tests based on the author's own experience.

Look, I’m hardly what you’d call on the speaking circuit, but I’ve gone enough rounds with rubber chickens to know only an idiot with a death wish would get between anyone and a buffet dinner – a set of bottomless (very gourmet, I’m sure, but still bottomless) chafing dishes. If it's any consolation, I won't be holding you back for too long.