Exploratory Factor Analysis of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) in Adult Patients with Acquired Brain Injury and Brain Disease

Abstract

Research has offered limited support for the theoretically derived, five-factor structure of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS). This investigation examined the structure of the RBANS using an exploratory factor analytic approach in a clinical sample of 248 adult patients with acquired brain injury/disease. Extraction using maximum likelihood method and subsequent orthogonal rotation yielded a two-factor model for the data, the first factor largely involving memory and the second factor emphasizing visual-spatial perception. Neither factor was pure, however, and both appeared to involve at least some degree of information processing speed. Consistent with many prior investigations in this specific line of research, our results question the index structure of the RBANS and suggest that it may be more appropriate to place a larger degree of emphasis on the measure’s subtests for accurate interpretation of patient functioning.