Luria Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery

The extensive work of the Russian neuropsychologist A. R. Luria has long been recognized as a major contribution to clinical neuropsychology. However, his work was largely qualitative rather than quantitative in nature. The development of a standardized version of Luria's neuropsychological assessment procedures was an attempt to provide a version that could be used to generate both quantitative and qualitative information.

This undertaking was facilitated by the publication in 1975 of materials by Anne-Lise Christensen that were useful in developing the original standardized version of the Luria Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (Form I) (LNNB). In addition, Luria summarized his investigative technique in an important paper [Page 562]titled “The Neuropsychological Investigation of Patients With Localized Brain Lesions,” which was translated into English by Dr. Lawrence Majovski.

The resulting test consisted of 269 items in Form I or 279 items in Form II. The actual number of administered procedures for each form is more than 700, because many of the items include numerous repetitions of the specific procedures. In the LNNB, qualitative as well as quantitative observations are scored and used to interpret the results. The battery allows the user to make generally the same qualitative observations made by Luria and others, using more formal administration and scoring procedures. As with other, more qualitative methods, the test user is encouraged to administer each item flexibly and to continuously test the limits of the client's cognitive abilities. The original scales for the LNNB were derived from Luria's basic classification of his items into broad skill categories, such as motor, nonverbal auditory, visual-spatial, receptive language, and intellectual.

Form II of the battery was designed with several goals in mind. The first goal was to establish a parallel version of the battery that could be used for test-retest purposes. The second goal was to make available a set of stimulus cards that would have several advantages over the cards used in Form I. These advantages were (a) a larger size for clients with possible peripheral sensory deficits; (b) an organization that allows the examiner to use the cards more efficiently, thus reducing administration time; (c) reduction of the number of loose cards so as to further ease administration problems; (d) correction of some items that were either too difficult or too easy; (e) some changes in administration and scoring of the battery that increase the ability of the items to specify deficits within particular areas; and (f) modifications in some items and stimuli to make the test material more familiar to users in the United States and Canada.

Since its introduction, the LNNB has generated several hundred research studies. It has been the subject of controversy from both qualitative theorists, who see the battery as too fixed and rigid, and quantitative theorists, who see the LNNB as too flexible and criticize the variation in item content within the scales of the test. Despite this, the battery is one of the most used standardized test batteries in neuropsychology and is especially useful for bedside evaluations and evaluations of clients with focal injuries as well as those who have extensive impairments that make other standard tests impractical.

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