The Cross Cultural Applicability of Neurofeedback Training to Produce Cognitive Performance Enhancement

摘要

The purpose of this dissertation was to analyze, both in neuropsychology and psychology, a crucial branch of cross cultural psychology: cross cultural assessments. This study was a pilot study that caould launch additional research into 3 fields: (a) the applicability of nonverbal neuropsychological normative data from the United States of America in an Asian population sample, (b) the research rigor of the Thai WISC-III and the viability of a Thai transition to the WISC -- IV, and (c) the application of neurofeedback (NFB) training in producing cognitive performance enhancement in an international population sample. The study required a valid intellectual measure to determine if non-Thai normed neuropsychological data can be effective for a Thai population. This intellectual measure was found in the Wechsler's Intelligence Scale for Children--III Thai version, which is specifically adapted to Thai children and adolescents between the ages 6 and 16-years-old. The study also required neurofeedback equipment and U.S. normed data. These were provided by the biomedical department of Mahidol University in Bangkok Thailand whose program was given approval by the internationally recognized, Biofeedback Certification International Alliance (BCIA). Additionally, this study required a small yet homogeneous sample population of 15 to 16-year-old high school children from a local Bangkok school. A homogeneous sample demographic possessed similar characteristics such as age, between group grade point average (GPA), and number of parents in order to study the male and female participants in one age bracket. A homogeneous sample allows this pilot test to be controlled and measured before a large-scale test, measuring every age group from 6 to 16 years of age is conducted. The sample population and WISC-III testing proctors were recruited through the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Rajanagarindra Institute and the Ministry of Public Health in Thailand.