The test was created by Charles Golden in 1981 and based on previous work by Alexander Luria that emphasizes a qualitative instead of quantitative approach.
The Luria–Nebraska has been found to be reliable and valid; it is comparable in this sense to other neuropsychological tests in its ability to differentiate between brain damage and mental illness.
To develop this version and ensure it covered everything from both Luria and Christensen, Golden first created an exam that took approximately 18 hours to administer and contained nearly 2,000 procedures.
From this base items were selectively removed if they were found to lack reliability or validity, be repetitive, be too long, or fail to accurately discriminate a brain injury.
Existing interest in Luria's work made this battery instantly popular, and as it was circulated, demand and research only grew.
It faced criticism for its combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, the wide variety of its fourteen scales, and the possibility that it did not include enough different neuropsychological skills or did not distinguish brain dysfunction adequately.
However, these concerns resulted in a decrease in use of the battery, and some negative views of it still persist despite evidence of its reliability and validity.
Research has shown its shorter testing time, cost to administer, and effectiveness allow for cost-efficient and reliable results.
Through its development and revision, the battery has also been shown to aid in presenting other underlying ailments that could not be detected by other sources.
In some cases the LNNB has been seen to show sensitivity to more subtle abnormalities in brain functioning, which researchers did not expect.