Misconceptions about the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery

The Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB) was introduced in the late 1970s as a fixed battery derived from clinical procedures and based upon the neuropsychological theory developed by the late Russian neuropsychologist Alexandr Luria. Considerable debate arose about the LNNB and it became the focus of harsh criticisms. The major criticisms related to the belief that the qualitative and quantitative approaches could not be fused, that the scales were too heterogeneous to produce meaningful scores, that the battery suffered from significant limitations in sampling of neuropsychological skills, and that it had questionable sensitivity to brain dysfunction. These criticisms generally reflected an unawareness of the interpretive process and theory underlying the LNNB, and have been largely negated by a large empirical literature that has evolved over many years. This article addresses the misconceptions perpetuated about the LNNB as a result of these early criticisms and discusses the applications and limitations of the battery based upon an understanding of its construction, theory, and research.