Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System Advanced
D-KEFS™ Advanced
D-KEFS Advanced leverages the power of an all-digital assessment to modernize neuropsychological testing. Simplified administration, enhanced data capture, and automatic scoring on Q-interactive provide the technological foundation for greater reliability, improved measurement, increased clinical sensitivity, and an elevated process-approach for the most trusted measures of executive functioning.Now availableFILTER BY
D-KEFS Advanced Overview Live Webinar Half Day with CE: August 4
A103000459005
Qualification Level
Tuesday, August 4, 2026
9:00 am – 12:45 pm ET
Join us for a half-day training session that provides an in-depth overview of the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Advanced. This session covers the theoretical foundations, practical applications, and basic interpretation of five key tests for school-age populations: Trail Making Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Social Sorting Test, Color-Word Interference Test, and Tower Test. Participants will gain hands-on experience with the digital platform and learn how to administer, score, and describe results effectively. Additionally, we will discuss how these assessments fit within a broader executive functions evaluation framework.
A training consultant will contact you one week before the session date with the Zoom link for registration.
Each participant in attendance must have a purchased seat. To be eligible for available CE credits, participants are required to register individually, log in on their own device, and attend the entire session.
D-KEFS Advanced Overview Live Webinar Half Day with CE: August 27
A103000459006
Qualification Level
Thursday, August 27, 2026
9:00 am – 12:45 pm ET
Join us for a half-day training session that provides an in-depth overview of the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Advanced. This session covers the theoretical foundations, practical applications, and basic interpretation of five key tests for school-age populations: Trail Making Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Social Sorting Test, Color-Word Interference Test, and Tower Test. Participants will gain hands-on experience with the digital platform and learn how to administer, score, and describe results effectively. Additionally, we will discuss how these assessments fit within a broader executive functions evaluation framework.
A training consultant will contact you one week before the session date with the Zoom link for registration.
Each participant in attendance must have a purchased seat. To be eligible for available CE credits, participants are required to register individually, log in on their own device, and attend the entire session.
D-KEFS Advanced Overview Live Webinar Half Day with CE: September 10
A103000459007
Qualification Level
Thursday, September 10, 2026
9:00 am – 12:45 pm ET
Join us for a half-day training session that provides an in-depth overview of the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Advanced. This session covers the theoretical foundations, practical applications, and basic interpretation of five key tests for school-age populations: Trail Making Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Social Sorting Test, Color-Word Interference Test, and Tower Test. Participants will gain hands-on experience with the digital platform and learn how to administer, score, and describe results effectively. Additionally, we will discuss how these assessments fit within a broader executive functions evaluation framework.
A training consultant will contact you one week before the session date with the Zoom link for registration.
Each participant in attendance must have a purchased seat. To be eligible for available CE credits, participants are required to register individually, log in on their own device, and attend the entire session.
D-KEFS Advanced Overview Live Webinar Half Day with CE: September 30
A103000459008
Qualification Level
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
9:00 am – 12:45 pm ET
Join us for a half-day training session that provides an in-depth overview of the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Advanced. This session covers the theoretical foundations, practical applications, and basic interpretation of five key tests for school-age populations: Trail Making Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Social Sorting Test, Color-Word Interference Test, and Tower Test. Participants will gain hands-on experience with the digital platform and learn how to administer, score, and describe results effectively. Additionally, we will discuss how these assessments fit within a broader executive functions evaluation framework.
A training consultant will contact you one week before the session date with the Zoom link for registration.
Each participant in attendance must have a purchased seat. To be eligible for available CE credits, participants are required to register individually, log in on their own device, and attend the entire session.
D-KEFS Advanced Overview Live Webinar Half Day
A103000428039
Qualification Level
Join us for a half-day training session that provides an in-depth overview of the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Advanced. This session covers the theoretical foundations, practical applications, and basic interpretation of five key tests for school-age populations: Trail Making Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Social Sorting Test, Color-Word Interference Test, and Tower Test. Participants will gain hands-on experience with the digital platform and learn how to administer, score, and describe results effectively. Additionally, we will discuss how these assessments fit within a broader executive functions evaluation framework.
Training orders will be processed within 5-7 business days of order placement. A training consultant will contact you to coordinate your training. Training dates are scheduled no earlier than 5 weeks from order placement.
- Publication date:
- July 2025
- Age range:
- Ages 8 - 90
- Qualification level:
- C
- Completion time:
- Variable depending on test selected
- Administration:
- Q-interactive
- Scoring options:
- Q-interactive
- Report options:
- Score Report
- Norms:
- Nationally representative sample of over 1,280 individuals demographically and regionally matched with 2020 US Census figures.
D-KEFS Advanced leverages the power of an all-digital assessment to modernize neuropsychological testing. Simplified administration, enhanced data capture, and automatic scoring on Q-interactive provide the technological foundation for greater reliability, improved measurement, increased clinical sensitivity, and an elevated process-approach for the most trusted measures of executive functioning.
Features
- More dynamic, cognitively demanding tests
- Expanded test conditions and content coverage
- Highly engaging game-like digital administration
- Automatic strategy, error, and process capture
- Current normative sample and clinical studies
- Co-normed tests
- Enhanced interpretive guidance and report options
Benefits
- Decreased administration time and examiner burden
- Immediate, reliable scoring
- Improved reliability, validity, and sensitivity
- Improved detection of subtle declines in individuals with high premorbid executive functions
- Elevated process approach to cognitive assessment
Tests
The D-KEFS Advanced includes six tests that assess working memory, concept formation, cognitive shifting, fluency of thinking, planning, organization, inhibition, feedback utilization, behavioral initiation, and problem-solving.
- D-KEFS Advanced Trail Making Test
- D-KEFS Advanced Verbal Fluency Test
- D-KEFS Advanced Color-Word Interference Test
- D-KEFS Advanced Tower Test
- D-KEFS Advanced Social Sorting Test
- D-KEFS Advanced Risk-Reward Decision Test
D-KEFS Advanced Stay in the Know
The D-KEFS Advanced will be published in 2025. Sign up for further updates by filling out the “Stay in the know” form.
The following resources are available for D-KEFS™ Advanced.
Materials:
Tests that comprise the D-KEFS Advanced harness the processing capacities of Q-interactive to provide new, more dynamic, cognitively demanding tasks that are unable to be delivered and scored with fidelity in a traditional paper format.
Already using Q-interactive?
If you have a qualifying Q-interactive license, D-KEFS Advanced will be automatically added to your account.
DKEFS™ Advanced Q-interactive subtest usages are:
New to Q-interactive?
See our license and pricing structure
Ordering
Annual Q-interactive licenses can be purchased using our online order form or by calling Customer Support at 1-866-335-8418.
Questions about using Q-interactive in your practice?
Packaging
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D-KEFS Advanced is not simply a digital version of a paper-based test; it is a suite of digitally native tests. Tests that comprise the D-KEFS Advanced harness the processing capacities of modern technology to provide new, more dynamic, cognitively demanding tasks that are unable to be delivered with fidelity in a traditional format. A good example of this is the systematic auditory and visual distractors that are presented during new conditions on the Trail Making test. In addition to the more cognitively complex tasks, the performance data that is captured by Q-interactive exceeds the volume of performance data points that can be reliably captured through a traditional administration process.
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No. All conditions for all D-KEFS Advanced tests use Q-interactive only; no manipulatives, stimulus books, record forms, or response booklets are needed.
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The D-KEFS Advanced Manual is accessible on the Q-interactive platform. A print version is available as an optional purchase.
Test Structure & Scores
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Trail Making, Verbal Fluency, Color-Word Interference and Tower all contain new content. Additional conditions were added to increase construct coverage, raise the ceiling, and improve clinical sensitivity. The Social Sorting Test is a new test, similar to the Wisconsin Card Sorting test, that measures problem-solving, concept formation, use of feedback, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition of perseverative responses. The Risk-Reward Decision Test, similar to the Iowa Gambling task, is a new test that assesses the hot executive function of risky decision-making in the context of a problem-solving task involving a horse-racing game. This test is intended for ages 19 and older.
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Tests selected for inclusion in D-KEFS Advanced, like Trail Making, are some of the most widely used measures of executive function. These tests were found to be highly amenable to leveraging the power of computing to deliver more dynamic and cognitively demanding conditions with the goal of increasing sensitivity and clinical utility of the test. For comprehensive information about the technology and development requirements and constraints that guided the development of tests consult the D-KEFS Advanced Manual.
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In addition to designing new tests, new core measures utilizing the capabilities of the digital platform were developed, including capturing performance at the individual-response level rather than the whole-test level, which improves the identification of executive function deficits in child and adult clinical groups.
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The Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff measure assesses how an examinee modulates response speed relative to accuracy rate to optimize their performance on complex timed tasks, capturing a unique aspect of executive functioning.
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The D-KEFS Advanced, like the D-KEFS (2001), provides age-based standard scores as well as age and education referenced standard scores.
General Practice
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During development, studies were conducted that included individuals with a broad range of neurological concerns and individuals in the oldest age range (70-90 years). Performing tasks on an iPad was found to be well-tolerated by these populations. As with any test, clinical judgment should guide decisions about the most-appropriate tool for a specific client.
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D-KEFS Advanced uses the iPad as a modern administration tool that eliminates the need for manipulatives, stimulus books, and response forms. Administration is still a highly interactive process facilitated by an examiner. Because the iPad offers automatic capture of detailed performance data the examiner can be freed from complexities of administration and scoring and instead concentrate on qualitative clinical and behavioral observations.
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The D-KEFS Advanced complements and does not replace the original D-KEFS. The original D-KEFS will continue to be available. D-KEFS Advanced can be used alone, or with tests from D-KEFS in a flexible manner to customize assessments of executive functions. The D-KEFS Advanced Manual provides information about use of the tests together.
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In the D–KEFS / D–KEFS Advanced sample collected during the standardization of D–KEFS Advanced, the mean scores are in the average range across both measures with higher values observed on both the D–KEFS and the D–KEFS Advanced across scores. Negligible effect sizes are observed for most scores. Given the similar content across the two measures, the negligible impact of practice effects is notable. The minimal differences suggest that the older norms on the D–KEFS are not heavily influenced by the Flynn effect and can continue to be used despite their age.
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Q-interactive requires the use of a local Wi-Fi connection utilizing Bonjour for peer-to-peer communication between the examiner iPad and the examinee iPad, meaning both devices must be in close proximity. As a result, D-KEFS Advanced cannot be administered in a remote tele practice setting. However, the system can be used in environments where the examiner and examinee are physically separated by a plexiglass or glass partition as part of PPE protocols. While some assessments on Q-interactive can be administered remotely, D-KEFS Advanced is not one of them.
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DKEFS™ Advanced Q-interactive subtest usages are:
Subtest -
Social Sorting Test
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Color Word Interference Test
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Trail Making Test
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