Donald has been bragging again about some cognitive tests he's taken recently and equating them with IQ tests and aptitude tests.

That's not what they are. In fact, he also said he nailed his MRI, by which I suppose he means the results of the MRI were negative.

I mean, bragging about MRI results are literally like saying you aced your x-ray.

Now, I am not a neurologist, but from what I understand, giving somebody an MRI in conjunction

with cognitive tests is typically the protocol a doctor follows if they're worried the patient

has had a stroke. But again, I don't know. And, of course, the White House isn't telling us anything.

Donald is pretending that passing these basic cognitive tests is a big deal.

And he's been pretending that since 2017.

That's the first time he took what is called the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or Moka, as it's also known.

And some of you may know, I have a PhD in clinical psychology, and back when I was still

working in the field, one of the things I specialized in was administering psychological test

batteries. This included scoring the results, analyzing the data, and then diagnosing my patients.

Mostly the tests I used were standardized intelligence and achievement tests, which were then

supplemented by subjective tests like the Rojerk and something called the thematic appreception

test.

But when I worked on the admissions ward of a state psychiatric hospital, my patients had extraordinarily

serious psychiatric disorders, and in some cases, I needed to include some neurological tests

in the test battery. It wasn't my specialty, but I became conversant with how such tests were

scored and interpreted. Although

whenever used the mocha, it is very similar to other tests used to screen for mild cognitive

dysfunction. The one we used is called the mini mental state exam. Again, they're very similar.

And these assess things like short-term memory, orientation, language, calculation, and attention.

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