The Tower of London test is a test used in applied clinical
neuropsychology for the assessment of
executive functioning
Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to:
Role or title
* Executive, a senior management role in an organization
** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators
** Executive dire ...
specifically to detect deficits in
planning, which may occur due to a variety of medical and neuropsychiatric conditions. It is related to the classic problem-solving puzzle known as the
Tower of Hanoi.
The test was developed by the psychologist
Tim Shallice
Timothy Shallice (born 1940) is a professor of neuropsychology and the founding director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, part of University College London. He has been a professor at Cognitive Neuroscience Sector of the International ...
and consists of two boards with pegs and several beads with different colors. The examiner (usually a clinical
psychologist or a
neuropsychologist
Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how a person's cognition and behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Professionals in this branch of psychology often focus on how injuries or illnesses of t ...
) uses the beads and the boards to present the examinee with problem-solving tasks.
Several variants of the test exist. Shallice's original test used three beads and pegs with different heights, although later researchers have generalized this to more beads without a peg height restriction. Versions of the test are available from a number of sources, including a stand-alone test by William Culbertson and Eric Zillmer (published by
Drexel University) and a child/adolescent version that is part of the original
NEPSY neuropsychological battery of tests by Marit Korkman, Ursula Kirk, and Sally Kemp (although removed from the second edition). A computerised variant, known as the Stockings of Cambridge test, is available as part of the
Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB).
One common use is for diagnosis of executive impairment. The performance of the examinee is compared to representative samples of individuals of the same age to derive hypotheses about the person's executive cognitive ability, especially as it may relate to
brain damage. A certain degree of controversy surrounds the test's
construct validity Construct validity concerns how well a set of indicators represent or reflect a concept that is not directly measurable. ''Construct validation'' is the accumulation of evidence to support the interpretation of what a measure reflects.Polit DF Beck ...
.
References
Further reading
*
**
External links
Tower Of London Game
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tower Of London Test
Neuropsychological tests
Cognitive tests