Cognitive Assessment Tools: A List of 14 Instruments and What Each One Measures

How This List Is Organized

Instruments are grouped by the job they do, not by how well known they are. Two tools with similar names can answer completely different questions: a three-minute screener asks "is anything here worth a closer look?", while a staging instrument asks "how far has an already-identified problem progressed?" Grouping by job is what makes the list usable.

For each entry below you will find what it measures, roughly how long it takes, and who administers it. Score ranges are described in general terms only — the instruments themselves are copyrighted, and what a number means depends on age, education, language, and the setting, which is why interpretation stays with a clinician.

Brief Screening Tools Used in Clinic

These are the cognitive screening tools a primary care physician or trained staff member is most likely to reach for. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force found that most brief instruments it reviewed can be administered in 10 minutes or less, and many in 5 minutes or less (USPSTF, 2020).

1. Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). A 30-point instrument covering orientation, recall, attention, calculation, and language, in use since the 1970s and still a fixture in clinical practice. MedlinePlus puts typical administration at about 10 minutes. Our guide to the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) covers what the sections assess.

2. Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Also 30 points, but designed to be more sensitive to mild cognitive impairment than the MMSE, adding visuospatial, executive function, naming, and abstraction tasks. In the original validation study the MoCA identified 90% of participants with mild cognitive impairment compared with 18% for the MMSE (Nasreddine et al., 2005). MedlinePlus lists roughly 15 minutes. See our overview of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA).

3. Mini-Cog. The briefest tool in wide use — about three minutes, according to MedlinePlus (MedlinePlus). It pairs a short word-recall task with a clock-drawing task, which makes it practical when clinic time is tight. More detail on the Mini-Cog.

4. Saint Louis University Mental Status Examination (SLUMS). A 30-point screener developed as a freely available alternative, with items weighted toward executive function and delayed recall. It is used in geriatric and veterans' settings in particular. Read more about SLUMS.

5. Clock Drawing Test (CDT). A short drawing task that samples visuospatial organization, planning, and executive function at once. It is used both on its own and as a component of other screeners, and appears in the USPSTF's review of screening instruments. Our page on the clock drawing test explains what clinicians look at.

6. Memory Impairment Screen (MIS). A very brief, memory-focused screener built around delayed free and cued recall. It exists in a telephone-administered form (MIS-T) as well, which is why it turns up in remote and population screening programs.

7. 7-Minute Screen (7MS). A short battery combining orientation, memory, verbal fluency, and clock drawing into a single administration, designed to distinguish early Alzheimer's-type changes from normal aging. Like the others in this group, it appears in the USPSTF's evidence review rather than as a standalone diagnostic.

Self-Administered and At-Home Cognitive Testing Tools

8. Self-Administered Gerocognitive Exam (SAGE). A four-page pen-and-paper test developed at Ohio State University that takes most people 10 to 15 minutes and requires only pen and paper, so it can be completed at home or in a waiting room. Ohio State publishes no answer key for the public and is explicit that "SAGE does not diagnose any specific condition" — the completed form goes to a physician for scoring and interpretation (Ohio State Wexner Medical Center). See our guide to SAGE.

9. FDA-cleared at-home digital assessments. A newer category that brings validated tasks onto a screen at home. These assessments measure the same core domains as clinic-administered tools — memory, attention, processing speed, executive function — with instructions written for someone testing without a clinician in the room, and they produce structured results you can hand to a provider. Orena is one of these. They are a complement to clinician-administered screening, not a substitute for it, and they do not diagnose. Our overview of at-home cognitive testing covers how the category works.

Informant Questionnaires

Some of the most useful signal comes not from the patient but from someone who has known them for years. These are not tests of performance; they are structured reports of observed change.

10. Ascertain Dementia 8 (AD8). An eight-item questionnaire asking a family member or close contact whether specific everyday abilities have changed. The Alzheimer's Association lists it among the brief tools clinicians use to assess changes in behavior and symptoms (Alzheimer's Association).

11. Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE). A longer informant instrument, also available in a short form, that asks how the person's memory and thinking compare with how they were roughly a decade earlier. Its comparative framing makes it useful when no baseline test exists — which is common.

Functional and Staging Instruments

12. Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ). Rather than testing cognition directly, the FAQ asks about independence in tasks like managing finances, medications, and appointments. That matters because whether cognitive symptoms affect daily activities is a central distinction in how clinicians classify impairment (Alzheimer's Association).

13. Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR). A staging instrument rather than a screener. It is a 5-point scale (0, 0.5, 1, 2, and 3) applied across six domains — memory, orientation, judgment and problem solving, community affairs, home and hobbies, and personal care — and it is scored from a semi-structured interview with both the patient and a reliable informant (Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center). It is used mainly after a diagnosis, and heavily in research.

Computerized Cognitive Batteries

Computerized batteries present tasks on a screen and record accuracy and reaction time with millisecond precision.

14. NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery. The best-known research example: a set of computer-administered measures spanning executive functioning, language, attention, episodic memory, and processing speed (Neuropsychology, 2025). It is used mainly in research and large studies rather than routine primary care.

What this family offers that paper screeners cannot:

• Standardized administration — every person receives identical instructions and stimuli, removing examiner variation
• Precise timing — reaction-time data captures processing-speed changes too small to see on a stopwatch
• Repeatability — alternate forms reduce the practice effect that makes repeat paper testing unreliable
• Scalability — the same battery can run across many sites, or remotely

Comprehensive Neuropsychological Batteries

A neuropsychological evaluation is not a single instrument but a battery assembled to answer a specific question, administered by a neuropsychologist over two to four hours or more. The Alzheimer's Association describes this deeper testing as covering executive function, judgment, attention, and language, and as the step taken when a fuller profile is needed (Alzheimer's Association).

The domains a battery typically covers:

• Memory — learning new information, delayed recall, and recognition
• Attention and processing speed — sustained focus, divided attention, reaction time
• Executive function — planning, organizing, problem-solving, mental flexibility
• Language — word-finding, naming, fluency, comprehension
• Visuospatial skills — copying figures, spatial navigation, object recognition

Because the specific instruments are selected case by case, this is the one entry on the list without a fixed name. For how it differs from the brief tools above, see cognitive testing vs. neuropsychological evaluation.

Which Tool Fits Which Question

Matching the instrument to the question is the whole skill. The American Academy of Neurology's practice guideline directs clinicians to assess for mild cognitive impairment using validated tools rather than impression alone, and to monitor patients over time (AAN practice guideline update, 2018).

• No specific concern, want a baseline — a brief screener or an FDA-cleared at-home assessment
• A change you or your family have noticed — a brief screener in clinic, often paired with an informant questionnaire
• Screening flagged something — a comprehensive neuropsychological battery
• Tracking change over months or years — computerized or at-home tools with alternate forms
• A diagnosis already made, staging needed — the CDR, usually with the FAQ

If you are unsure whether any of this applies to you yet, who should get cognitive testing lays out the groups that benefit most, and what to expect during a cognitive test walks through a typical appointment.

What These Tools Cannot Do

No instrument on this list returns a diagnosis. A score below the expected range means further evaluation is warranted, not that a condition is present — and reversible contributors such as medication side effects, thyroid problems, poor sleep, depression, and vitamin deficiencies have to be ruled out first.

It is also worth knowing that the USPSTF's 2020 review concluded the evidence was insufficient to recommend for or against routine screening of asymptomatic older adults, a grade "I" statement (USPSTF, 2020). That is not an argument against testing when there is a reason to test; it is a reminder that these tools work best pointed at a real question. For what the resulting numbers do and do not mean, see how cognitive test scores are interpreted.

Finally, none of these instruments should be practiced in advance. Rehearsing the tasks distorts the result and takes away the only thing the score is good for.

Taking the Next Step

To choose between these options for your own situation, start with our orientation guide to cognitive testing.

If you'd like a validated assessment you can complete at home and share with your doctor, learn how Orena's FDA-cleared test works.