Language skills, assessment

The APTS was designed for portability works on IBM PC compatible systems running on a standard MS DOS operating system.53 The battery measures abilities of motor function, focused attention, selective attention, acquisition, and memory, as well as spatial perception and reasoning, mathematical calculation, and other language skills.4 7 Similar to most of the computerized performance assessment batteries, additions and deletions of individual components have occurred as the battery has matured and been used in different applications. 

Neuropsychological procedures are used in an effort to provide an unbiased estimate of the individual s cognitive capacity. In neurology and psychiatry, these tests have been used to help clinicians to better diagnose patients and to provide them with better treatments. We chose to use a fixed battery in our effort to assess neurobehavioral changes that might be associated with the chronic use of marijuana. That battery included tests of language skills, visual and spatial memory, attention, concentration, executive function, visuo-constructive skills, manual dexterity, simple reaction time, and complex reaction time in subjects in our studies. The various tests used are listed below. 

The references cited by an examining authority have to be assessed in view of the so-called person skilled in the art . The skilled person is a fiction and represents a person who knows all references that have ever been published in whatever language, who however does not have too much creativity in posing and solving objects or problems on the respective technical field. This means that the person skilled in the art does not have the capacity of a Nobel Laureate, but does know more about the respective technical field than a technically interested layman. Of course, the knowledge of the person skilled in the art is stretchable and a matter of the respective case. Occasionally, a team of persons can be addressed as person skilled in the art , in particular in border-line technical fields. 

As a developer, students are expected to have new programming skills to stay relevant in the fast-paced tech world. Hence the programming languages that are in demand by employers are identified and introduced in syllabus. Some of them are C, C++, ASP.NET, JSP, and PHP. Taking into consideration the importance of this course, an innovative assessment strategy has been adopted, discussed in Sect. 4.3. 

---