About the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC)
The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) is a 1983 cognitive ability test for children created by psychologists Alan and Nadeen Kaufman, built on neuropsychological theory to separate problem-solving ability from acquired knowledge and to reduce cultural and racial bias in IQ testing.
By the early 1980s, the WISC-R (1974) was the dominant child individual cognitive assessment but had attracted increasing criticism for showing substantial mean score differences between racial and ethnic groups, raising questions about cultural fairness. Alan Kaufman (Yale) and Nadeen Kaufman set out to build an alternative grounded in Soviet psychologist Alexander Luria's theory of neuropsychological functioning, which emphasized brain-based processing distinctions over verbal/performance content distinctions.
The K-ABC organized cognitive assessment into Sequential Processing (analyzing information serially over time - hand movements, number recall, word order) and Simultaneous Processing (analyzing information all at once - face recognition, gestalt closure, matrix analogies, spatial memory). These constructs are grounded in Luria's distinction between successive and simultaneous cognitive processing. The K-ABC also included a separate Achievement scale to allow ability-achievement comparison.
The 1983 K-ABC achieved its goal of substantially smaller racial and ethnic score gaps than the WISC. It also offered Wechsler-equivalent overall reliability and validity, making it a credible alternative for clinical and educational use. The 2004 K-ABC-II is the current edition; it remains widely used particularly for children from culturally diverse backgrounds and for bilingual assessment.
The 3 subtests
Sample Items (Illustrative)
Items are presented verbally or visually, and responses are either verbal or involve physical actions. Scoring typically involves determining whether the response is correct or matches expected criteria.
These are illustrative samples, not actual items from the protected test.
Source
All test materials and historical content on this page are transcribed from:
Alan S. Kaufman & Nadeen L. Kaufman (1983). Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC).
K-ABC items remain under Pearson copyright. We document the battery's history and significance.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC)?
The K-ABC is an individually administered test of cognitive ability and achievement for children, first published in 1983 by Alan S. Kaufman and Nadeen L. Kaufman. Rather than producing a single IQ score, it was built on neuropsychological theory and measured mental processing through two styles of thinking, sequential and simultaneous processing, while keeping that processing ability separate from acquired knowledge.
Who created the K-ABC and in what year?
The K-ABC was developed by Alan S. Kaufman and Nadeen L. Kaufman, a husband-and-wife team of psychologists, and was published in 1983. Alan Kaufman had earlier worked under David Wechsler on the Wechsler intelligence scales, and the Kaufmans designed the K-ABC partly as a response to limitations they saw in traditional IQ tests of the era.
What does the K-ABC measure and how is it different from other IQ tests?
The K-ABC measures a child's mental processing ability separately from their acquired knowledge. Its core framework distinguishes sequential processing, which handles information in serial or step-by-step order, from simultaneous processing, which integrates information all at once in a spatial or holistic way. This division was grounded in neuropsychological theory associated with the work of Luria and Sperry. A separate Achievement scale measured learned knowledge such as vocabulary, reading, and arithmetic, so ability and schooling-based knowledge were not blended into one number.
Why was the K-ABC designed to reduce cultural bias?
A central goal of the Kaufmans was to narrow the score gaps between racial and ethnic groups that had long appeared on conventional IQ tests. By emphasizing mental processing over culturally loaded acquired knowledge, by including teaching items and sample tasks, and by minimizing reliance on language, the K-ABC aimed to assess children more fairly across diverse backgrounds, including minority children and those whose first language was not English.
How is the K-ABC scored?
The K-ABC yields standard scores set to a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, consistent with most modern intelligence tests. Its main composite scores were the Sequential Processing scale, the Simultaneous Processing scale, a combined Mental Processing Composite that served as the overall ability estimate, and a separate Achievement scale. Subtest performance was reported on a scaled-score metric, and the original version was normed for children roughly ages 2 years 6 months through 12 years 6 months.
Is the K-ABC still used today, and is there a modern version?
The original 1983 K-ABC has been replaced by a modern revision. The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition (KABC-II) was published in 2004, with an expanded age range of about 3 to 18 years and an updated theoretical structure that lets examiners interpret results through either the Luria processing model or the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model of cognitive abilities. The KABC-II, later updated as the KABC-II Normative Update, is the version in current professional use.
Cite this page
This page is part of the Historical IQ Tests Archive. Editorial content, transcription notes, and curation are released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). Public-domain primary sources retain their public-domain status. BibTeX · RIS
Historical test materials are obsolete and are not valid modern IQ assessments. This page is preserved for educational, research, and historiographic purposes.
Looking for a contemporary IQ test?
The instrument documented above is a historical document. Modern IQ scoring uses contemporary norms (mean 100, SD 15). Our free full IQ test is available separately.