The Tower of London test is a test used in applied clinical neuropsychology for the assessment of executive functioning specifically to detect deficits in planning,[1][2] which may occur due to a variety of medical and neuropsychiatric conditions.

The examiner (usually a clinical psychologist or a neuropsychologist) presents the examinee with problem-solving tasks: one board shows the goal arrangement of beads, and the other board is given to the examinee with the beads in a different configuration.

By moving beads from one peg to another, the examinee must alter the second board to match the first - a task that requires a degree of thinking ahead.

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.

[5] 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).