Discriminative Effectiveness of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery for LD Adolescents

Abstract

This study investigated the utility of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery in differentiating between a group of 30 male adolescents diagnosed as having a specific learning disability and a matched group of 30 non-LD students in a public school setting. The learning disabled group obtained significantly higher mean t-scores on 10 of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery summary scales. MANOVA confirmed the discriminative sensitivity of the battery. Also, it confirmed that the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery's sensitivity was not limited to scales that are typically elevated for individuals whose educational achievement is poor. Both discriminant function analysis and a rule for interpreting test profile data correctly classified 90% of the sample with an acceptable ratio of false positives (6.7%) to false negatives (13.3%). Implications for the diagnosis of learning disability are discussed.