/ Psychological Tests / Cognitive Functions (Neuropsychology)

Coimbra Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (BANC)

Portuguese version

Simões, M. R., Albuquerque, C. P., Pinho, M. S., Vilar, M., Pereira, M., Lopes, A. F., Seabra-Santos, M. J., Alberto, I., Lopes, C., Martins, C., & Moura, O. (2016a). Bateria de Avaliação Neuropsicológica de Coimbra (BANC): Manual Técnico [Coimbra Neuropsychological Assessment Battery: Technical Manual]. Cegoc. [343 pages]

Simões, M. R., Albuquerque, C. P., Pinho, M. S., Vilar, M., Pereira, M., Lopes, A. F., Seabra-Santos,

M. J., Alberto, I., Lopes, C., Martins, C., & Moura, O. (2016b). Bateria de Avaliação Neuropsicoló-

gica de Coimbra (BANC): Manual de Administração e cotação [Coimbra Neuropsychological Assessment Battery: Administration and scoring manual]. Cegoc. [174 pages]

Theoretical background

The Coimbra Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (BANC; Simões et al., 2008) was developed specifically for the examination of children and adolescents from 5 to 15 years old. The BANC includes multiple domains of functioning: memory, language, attention, executive functions, laterality, orientation and motor function. Each one of these domains of neuropsychological functioning is evaluated by one or more tests.

Description

Assessment Domain: Neuropsychological functions, mainly cognitive. Neuropsychology.

Type of Instrument: Battery of neuropsychological tests.

Application: 90-120 minutes.

Population: Children and adolescents (5-17 years old).

Dimensions

The BANC includes multiple domains of functioning: memory, language, attention, executive functions, laterality, orientation and motor function.

The BANC is a comprehensive battery of 15 neuropsychological tests that enables the examination of important neurocognitive functions: memory, language, attention, executive functions, laterality, orientation and motor function. The respective tests are listed below.

Memory

  • Word Learning List;
  • Narrative/Logical Memory;
  • Face Recognition;
  • Complex Rey Figure Test;
  • Corsi Blocks.

Language

  • Phonological Awareness (Deletion, Substitution);
  • Rapid Naming;
  • Comprehension of orders/ instructions.

Attention/Executive Functions

  • 2 and 3 signals Cancellation;
  • Trails;
  • Verbal Fluency (Semantic and Phonemic);
  • Tower.

Motor skills

Pegboard Test.

Laterality

Questionnaire and Observation Grid.

Orientation

Orientation questionnaire.

Studies:

Validity: Psychometrics

  • Confirmatory Factor Analysis.
  • Relationships with other cognitive tests (e.g., WISC-III, Raven Coloured Progressive Test).

Validity: Special groups

  • Developmental Dyslexia
  • Hyperactivity/Attention Deficit Disorder
  • Epilepsy
  • Traumatic Brain Injury
  • Language Impairment
  • (Autism).
  • Mild Intellectual Disability
  • Borderline Intellectual Functioning
  • Intellectual giftedness
  • Oppositional Defiant Disorder
  • Juvenile Delinquency
  • Neglect and abuse.

Normative study:

5-15 years old (N = 1104, approximately 50 boys and 50 girls in each age group). Based on the regression analysis method, norms for 16 and 17 years of age were recently developed (Moura et al., 2024).

Contacts

Mário R. Simões (simoesmr@fpce.uc.pt)

Cristina Petrucci Albuquerque (calbuquerque@fpce.uc.pt)

Octávio Moura (octaviomoura@gmail.com)

References

  1. Albuquerque, C. P. (2012). Rapid naming contributions to reading and writing acquisition of European Portuguese. Reading and Writing, 25(4), 775-797. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-011-9299-6
  2. Albuquerque, C. P., & Simões, M. R. (2009). Testes de Nomeação Rápida: Contributos para a avaliação da linguagem oral [Rapid Naming Tests: Contributions to the assessment of oral language]. Análise Psicológica, 27(1), 65-77. http://www.scielo.mec.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0870-82312009000100005&lng=pt&nrm=i.p&tlng=en
  3. Albuquerque, C. P., & Simões, M. R. (2010). Rapid Naming Tests: Developmental course and relations with neuropsychological measures. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 13(1), 88-100. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1138741600003693
  4. Albuquerque, C. P., Martins, C., & Simões, M. R. (2007). Testes de Consciência Fonológica da Bateria de Avaliação Neuropsicológica de Coimbra [Phonological awareness tests of Coimbra's Neuropsychological Assessment Battery]. Educação: Temas e Problemas, 4, 101-118.
  5. Albuquerque, C.P., Simões, M. R., & Martins, C. (2011). Testes de Consciência Fonológica da Bateria de Avaliação Neuropsicológica de Coimbra: Estudos de precisão e validade [Phonological awareness tests of Coimbra's Neuropsychological Assessment Battery: Reliability and validity studies]. Revista Iberoamericana de Diagnóstico y Evaluación Psicológica, 29(1), 55-76. http://www.aidep.org/sites/default/files/articles/R29/R29art3res.pdf
  6. Alfaiate, C., Simões, M. R., Fernandes, E., Temudo, P., Fernandes, B., Nogueira, S., Duque, F., Carvalho, I., Lopes, A. F. & Borges, L. (2008). Memória, atenção e funções executivas em crianças com Perturbação de Hiperactividade e Défice de Atenção (PHDA): Estudo com a Bateria de Avaliação Neuropsicológica de Coimbra [Memory, attention and executive functions in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Study with Coimbra Neuropsychological Assessment Battery]. In I. Leal, J. L. P. Ribeiro, I. Silva E S. Marques (Eds.), Actas do 7º Congresso Nacional de Psicologia da Saúde: Intervenção em Psicologia e Saúde [Proceedings Intervention in Psychology and Health] (pp.163-170). ISPA.
  7. Coelho, S., Albuquerque, C. P., & Simões, M. R. (2013). Specific language impairment: A neuropsychological characterization. Paidéia, 23(54), 31-41. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-863X2013000100031
  8. Dias, A. B. A., Albuquerque, C. P., & Simões, M. R. (2018). Memory and linguistic/executive functions of children with Borderline Intellectual Functioning. Applied Neuropsychology: Child, 8(1),76-87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21622965.2017.1384924
  9. Lopes, A. F., Monteiro, J. P., Fonseca, M. J., Robalo, C. & Simões, M. (2014). Memory functioning in children with epilepsy: Frontal lobe epilepsy, childhood absence epilepsy and benign epilepsy with centro-temporal spikes. Behavioural Neurology, 2014, Article ID 218637, 8 pages. http://doi.org/10.1155/2014/218637
  10. Lopes, A. F., Monteiro, J. P., Fonseca, M. J., Robalo, C., & Simões, M. R. (2014). Risk factors for school problems in children and adolescents with epilepsy. E-PSI. https://revistaepsi.com/wp-content/uploads/artigos/2013/Ano3-Volume2-Artigo4.pdf
  11. Lopes, A. F., Simões, M. R., Robalo, C., Fineza, I, & Gonçalves, O. (2010). Evaluación neuropsicológica en niños con epilepsia: Funciones ejecutivas y atención en epilepsia del lóbulo temporal [Neuropsychological assessment in children with epilepsy: Executive functions and attention in temporal lobe epilepsy]. Revista de Neurología, 5, 265-272. https://www.neurologia.com/articulo/2009452
  12. Lopes, A. F., Simões, M. R., Robalo, C., Fineza, I. & Gonçalves, O. (2008). Memória em crianças e adolescentes com epilepsia do lobo temporal [Memory in children and adolescents with temporal lobe epilepsy]. In I. Leal, J. L. P. Ribeiro, I. Silva e S. Marques (Eds.), Actas do 7º Congresso Nacional de Psicologia da Saúde: Intervenção em Psicologia da Saúde (pp.43-48) [Proceedings Intervention in Psychology and Health]. ISPA.
  13. Lopes, R., Nunes, R.G., Simões, M. R., Secca, M. F., Leal, A. (2015). The Visual Word Form Area remains in the dominant hemisphere for language in late-onset left occipital lopbe epilepsies: A postsurgery analysis of two cases. Epilepsy & Behavior, 46, 91-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2015.04.019
  14. Lopes, R., Simões, M. R., & Leal, A. J.R. (2014). Neuropsychological abnormalities in children with the Panayiotopoulos syndrome point to parietal lobe dysfunction. Epilepsy & Behaviour, 31, 50-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2013.11.013
  15. Moura, O., Albuquerque, C.P., Pinho, M.S., Vilar, M., Lopes, A. F., Alberto, I., Pereira, M., Santos, M. J. S., & Simões, M. R. (2018). Factor structure and measurement invariance of the Coimbra Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (BANC). Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 33(1), 66-78. https://doi.org/10.1093/arclin/acx052
  16. Moura, O., Moreno, J., Pereira, M., & Simões, M. R. (2015). Developmental Dyslexia and Phonological Processing in European Portuguese Orthography. Dyslexia, 21(1), 60-79. https://doi.org/10.1002/dys.1489
  17. Moura, O., Pereira, M., Albuquerque, C. P., Pinho, M. S., Vilar, M., Lopes, A. F., Alberto, I., Seabra-Santos, M. J., Simões, M. R. (2024). BANC: Dados normativos através de análises de regressão para adolescentes de 16 e 17 anos de idade [BANC: Normative data through regression analyzes for adolescents aged 16 and 17]. Revista Iberoamericana de Diagnóstico y Evaluación - e Avaliação Psicológica, 71(1), 23-36. https://doi.org/10.21865/RIDEP71.1.03
  18. Moura, O., Pereira, M., Alfaiate, C., Fernandes, E., Fernandes, B., Nogueira, S., Moreno, J., & Simões, M.R. (2017). Neurocognitive functioning in children with developmental dyslexia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Multiple deficits and diagnostic accuracy. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 39(3), 296-312. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803395.2016.1225007
  19. Moura, O., Simões, M. R., & Pereira, M. (2013). Fluência verbal semântica e fonémica em crianças: Diferentes funções cognitivas e análise dos desempenhos ao longo dos 60 segundos [Different cognitive functions and performance analysis during 60 seconds]. Avaliação Psicológica, 12(2), 167-177. http://pepsic.bvsalud.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1677-04712013000200008
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  21. Moura, O., Simões, M. R., & Pereira, M. (2014). WISC-III Cognitive Profiles in Children with Developmental Dyslexia: Specific Cognitive Disability and Diagnostic Utility. Dyslexia, 20, 19-37. https://doi.org/10.1002/dys.1468
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  25. Simões, M. R. (2003). Os testes de fluência verbal na avaliação neuropsicológica: Pressupostos, funções examinadas e estruturas anatómicas envolvidas [The verbal fluency tests in neuropsychological assessment: Assumptions, examined functions and anatomical structures involved]. Psychologica, 32, 25-48.
  26. Simões, M. R. (2008). Bateria de Avaliação Neuropsicológica de Coimbra (BANC): Estudo de validade com recurso à Escala de Inteligência de Wechsler para Crianças – Terceira Edição [Coimbra Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (BANC): Validity study with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Third Edition]. In Adelinda Candeias, Leandro Almeida, António Roazzi & Ricardo Primi (Eds.), Inteligência: Definição e medida na confluência de múltiplas concepções (pp. 369-393) [Intelligence: Definition and measurement at the confluence of multiple conceptions]. Casa do Psicólogo.
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  31. Simões, M. R., Pinho, M. S., Lopes, A. F., & Sousa, L. B., & Lopes, C. (2011). Figura Complexa de Rey [Rey Complex Figure Test]. In C. Machado, M. M. Gonçalves, L. S. Almeida, & M. R. Simões (Eds.), Instrumentos e contextos de avaliação psicológica (Vol. I, pp. 9-44) [Instruments and psychological assessment contexts]. Almedina Edições.
  32. Simões, M. R., Pinho, M. S., Lopes, A. F., Santos, L., Alfaiate, C., Fernandes, E., Lopes, C. L., Sousa, L. B., & Vilar, M. (2007). Teste de Fluência Verbal Semântica (Bateria de Avaliação Neuropsicológica de Coimbra) [Semantic Verbal Fluency Test (Coimbra Neuropsychological Assessment Battery)]. In M. R. Simões, C. Machado, M. M. Gonçalves & L. S. Almeida (Coords.), Avaliação psicológica: Instrumentos validados para a população portuguesa [Instruments and psychological assessment contexts] (Vol. III, pp. 281-304). Quarteto.