What IQ tests couldn't see
Brain damage was assessed with a clinical interview, a basic neurological exam and a broad IQ test.5
Halstead chaired Chicago's psychology department and studied patients with frontal-lobe injuries. He tried out tests that could show the type and severity of brain damage from how a person handled specific tasks. He started with ten; all but three remain in today's battery.6,4
His original tests (1935–1947) included the Category Test, a blindfolded form-board called the Tactual Performance Test, a Rhythm Test and a Speech Sounds Perception Test.5 In the 1930s and 1940s his work was not universally accepted.1
"Biological intelligence," in four factors
Halstead used the term for the parts of cognition that depend on the brain itself, and so should suffer most from brain damage.5 Working with a group of statisticians, he factor-analysed his tests, making this the first factor-analysed neuropsychological battery.2
Factor research continued after Reitan added tests to the battery and after Reitan and Wolfson proposed their own model.2
Find the hidden rule
Press 1, 2, 3 or 4 for each picture. A chime means right, a buzzer means wrong. Each subtest has one principle behind every picture. Once you've found it, the rest of that subtest is easy.4
Two invented subtests of six items, in the same format. Real Category Test items aren't reproduced, and nothing here is scored or normed.
Three ways to sum up a brain
Scores from the core battery can be combined into an overall index of impairment. The original is Halstead's; two later scales use more of the battery.3
Its strengths and its critics
References
- [1]The Halstead–Reitan Neuropsychological Battery. In Critical Issues in Neuropsychology (book series chapter). Springer.link.springer.com
- [2]Factor structure of the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery: A review and integration (2013). PubMed abstract.pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23397998
- [3]Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery — an overview. ScienceDirect Topics.sciencedirect.com
- [4]Halstead-Reitan Battery. Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, via Encyclopedia.com.encyclopedia.com
- [5]Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery (1947). What's Your IQ (2026).whats-your-iq.com
- [6]Decoding the Halstead-Reitan Battery. Psychology Town (2026).psychology.town
- [7]Wikipedia contributors. Halstead–Reitan Neuropsychological Battery (reference list; accessed 29 Sept 2026).en.wikipedia.org
Primary source: Halstead, W. C. (1947). Brain and intelligence. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.2 See also Reitan (1959) on the Impairment Index against the Wechsler-Bellevue, and Russell, Neuringer & Goldstein (1970).7
Related historical tests
Connect numbered circles, then alternate numbers and letters, against the clock. It is the kind of timed, task-based clinical measure Halstead's approach favoured over a single IQ, and you can try it on its page.
The adult IQ scale Halstead's approach was contrasted with. In 1959 Reitan published a comparison of how brain damage affected the Impairment Index and the Wechsler-Bellevue.
Copy nine geometric figures while they stay in view. It was a much shorter clinical route to the same question of whether a patient's errors pointed to organic damage.
Copy a complex figure, then redraw it from memory. It covers the dedicated memory testing critics say the Halstead-Reitan Battery lacks.
Seven short subtests combined into a Memory Quotient. Clinicians often paired a memory scale like this with a battery that measured memory only indirectly.
Another 1930s–40s attempt to split intelligence into factors. Thurstone found primary abilities in ordinary people; Halstead looked for the factors of a "biological intelligence" in brain-injured patients.