At Infinity Psychology & Assessments, our team of psychologists are able to provide comprehensive cognitive testing, typically provided as part of a broader diagnostic assessment. Cognitive assessments are not often conducted in isolation (that is, where there is no broader diagnostic question), but may be requested individually if required.

We are able to provide cognitive testing for children, teenagers, and adults.

What is cognitive testing?

A cognitive assessment refers to standardised tasks and activities conducted by a psychologist which provide a detailed picture of how a person thinks, learns, solves problems, and processes information. It is sometimes referred to as an ‘IQ test’ or an intellectual assessment, and often is a component of broader diagnostic assessments to investigate neurodevelopmental differences such as autism, ADHD, and learning difficulties (e.g., dyslexia).

Cognitive assessments explore how people learn and take in information, rather than what they know or what academic skills they have. Cognitive testing explores the following areas:

• Verbal reasoning and comprehension – knowledge acquired from the environment and education, vocabulary skills, and the ability to reason with and understand language

• Visual-spatial skills – processing and organising visual information in one’s mind, attending to visual details, and integrating motor and visual skills

• Logical reasoning and problem solving – inductive and conceptual reasoning, and classification skills

• Working (‘short-term’) memory – taking in, retaining, and mentally manipulating auditory or visual memory in one’s immediate attention

• Processing speed – quickly taking in and discriminating between information

Information about these areas gathered from cognitive testing combines to create a profile of cognitive strengths and differences, which gives insight into a person’s capacity to learn, and how they best learn and process information.

In some cases, we will also conduct other types of neuropsychological tests to explore areas such as:

• Attention and executive functioning

• Naming speed or retrieval fluency

• Auditory processing