Odumuyiwa, Tolulope;
(2025)
Breaking Cultural Barriers: Culturally Fair Assessment of Memory and Other Cognitive Skills Within the Black Community.
Doctoral thesis (D.Clin.Psy), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Aims: Black African/Caribbean communities in the UK experience a higher incidence of dementia and may be disadvantaged by culturally biased cognitive assessments. This study aimed to evaluate whether culture-fair cognitive screening tools offer a more culturally appropriate and equitable alternative to standard assessments for Black African/Caribbean and White British adults. It also explored participants’ experiences of each assessment in terms of comfort, clarity, and cultural relevance. Method: A cross-sectional comparative design was used to assess cognitive performance on culture-fair and standard tools in 44 cognitively healthy adults (24 Black African/Caribbean, 20 White British). Bayesian analyses examined between- and within-group differences across matched cognitive domains. Participants completed a post-test comfort questionnaire. Results: Between-group comparisons showed strong evidence for no difference across most tests. Within-group analyses revealed that Black participants consistently performed better on culture-fair tests, a pattern not observed among White British participants. Feedback indicated these were experienced as more intuitive, relevant, and comfortable. Conclusions: The findings demonstrate that standard cognitive tests may underestimate ability in Black African/Caribbean adults, while culture-fair tools such as the CCD and RUDAS offer more equitable assessments. These tools not only reduced performance disparities but were also rated as more culturally relevant and comfortable by participants. Clinically, this supports the need to adopt culturally fair tools to improve diagnostic accuracy and patient engagement in memory services. Policy-wise, national dementia screening guidelines should formally endorse validated culture-fair assessments to reduce systemic bias. Future research should further explore disaggregated experiences within Black communities and validate these tools in larger and more diverse UK samples.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | D.Clin.Psy |
| Title: | Breaking Cultural Barriers: Culturally Fair Assessment of Memory and Other Cognitive Skills Within the Black Community |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10213969 |
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