Introduction to the Awareness Questionnaire

The Awareness Questionnaire (AQ) was developed by Mark Sherer, Corwin Boake, Ellen Levin, Bernard V. Silver, George Ringholz, and Walter M. High, Jr. The initial version of the AQ, as well as the results of a factor analysis that resulted in the current version of the AQ, were published in 1998. The AQ was developed as a measure of impaired self-awareness after traumatic brain injury (TBI). While all investigations of the AQ to this point have studied persons with TBI, the AQ may also be appropriate for use with persons with other types of acquired brain injury such as intracerebral hemorrhage, brain tumors, anoxia, etc.

The AQ consists of 3 forms; one form is completed by the person with TBI, one by a family member/significant other, and one by a clinician familiar with the person with TBI. The self-rated and family/significant others forms have 17 items while the clinician form has 18 items. On each form, the abilities of the person with TBI to perform various tasks after the injury as compared to before the injury are rated on a five point scale ranging from "much worse" to "much better."

The AQ takes about 10 minutes to administer. It is generally administered by a clinical neuropsychologist, but can be administered by any person trained in administration of questionnaires to the appropriate populations.

This information regarding the AQ was provided by Mark Sherer, Ph.D., ABPP-Cn of The Institute for Rehabilitation Research. Please contact Mark Sherer, PhD, ABPP-Cn, at for more information.

If you find the information in the COMBI useful, please mention it when citing sources of information. The information on the Awareness Questionnaire may be cited as:

Sherer, M. (2004). The Awareness Questionnaire. The Center for Outcome Measurement in Brain Injury. http://www.tbims.org/combi/aq ( accessed ).