Named tests
Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities
In short
The Woodcock-Johnson V (WJ V) is a fully digital battery from Riverside Insights, released in February 2025, that measures general intellectual ability, specific cognitive abilities, oral language and achievement from age 4 through 90 and older. Its cognitive battery has 14 standard tests that pair into 7 broad abilities from the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model.
Want your own number? The test is 25 visual puzzles, about 12 minutes, no sign-up.
What the WJ V is
Riverside Insights announced the Woodcock-Johnson V on February 3, 2025, as a fully digital platform (Riverside Insights: WJ V launch). It is broader than a pure IQ test. The battery measures general intellectual ability, specific cognitive abilities, oral language and academic achievement, from age 4 through 90 and older (Riverside: WJ V technical abstract). Only the cognitive part works like an IQ test; the oral language and achievement parts measure what a person has learned to do with language, reading, writing and math.
How the cognitive battery is built
The WJ V cognitive battery has 14 standard tests that pair into 7 broad CHC ability clusters, plus 6 extended tests. Some of the tests also feed a General Intellectual Ability (GIA) cluster, the battery's overall score (Riverside: WJ V technical abstract).
The structure follows the Cattell-Horn-Carroll model. Richard Woodcock brokered the CHC umbrella term with John Horn and John Carroll in 1999 (McGrew, 2023). Carroll's 1993 book reanalyzed more than 460 data sets and set out a hierarchical, three-stratum theory of cognitive ability (Carroll, 1993). Kevin McGrew suggests treating the Cattell, Horn and Carroll ideas as a family of related CHC theories rather than one fixed theory (McGrew, 2023).
The broad abilities
We have not confirmed the WJ V cluster names from Riverside's materials, so as a guide the table below shows the CHC broad abilities measured in a 2023 network analysis of the previous edition's norm sample (Woodcock-Johnson IV, ages 9 to 19) (McGrew et al., 2023):
| CHC broad ability | Code | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Fluid reasoning | Gf | Solving new problems |
| Comprehension-knowledge | Gc | Vocabulary and general knowledge |
| Visual processing | Gv | Perceiving and manipulating images |
| Auditory processing | Ga | Analyzing sounds, including speech sounds |
| Short-term working memory | Gwm | Holding and using information briefly |
| Retrieval fluency | Gr | Pulling information from memory quickly |
| Processing speed | Gs | Fast, accurate simple tasks |
That study supported the main CHC broad abilities and suggested the working memory and attentional control complex may be central (McGrew et al., 2023). The CHC theory page explains the model in more depth.
Format and norms
In the WJ V, a laptop and an iPad replace the traditional test easel and paper record. The norms are based on 5,837 people ages 3 to 90 and older (Riverside: WJ V technical abstract). Like other modern batteries, the scores compare a person with others of the same age in that sample.
How it compares with a Wechsler test
Both are built on broad abilities that sit under one overall score. The WISC-V and WAIS-5 report five primary indexes, including Fluid Reasoning, Working Memory and Processing Speed (Pearson: WAIS-5 overview). The WJ V reports more clusters and adds achievement and oral language tests in the same system. For an overview of the main families of tests, see types of IQ tests.
Practicing the kinds of reasoning involved
WJ V items are not public. To try fluid reasoning and pattern problems with original items, our free cognitive ability test and number series puzzles are a starting point. They are not Woodcock-Johnson items, and no IQ Octopus score predicts a WJ V score.
IQ Octopus is not affiliated with or endorsed by Riverside Insights or any other publisher named here. Test names are used only to identify and describe the tests. Our free practice tests are not copies of any published test, and no score on IQ Octopus predicts a score on another test.
Try one · Logical Reasoning
Which tile completes the second pair?
Tap the option you think is right, or show the answer.
Show the answer
The missing panel shows a large hatched diamond, with small solid shapes: a triangle at the top-left corner and a triangle at the left side (option 5).
How to solve it
- Compare the first two panels and name exactly what changed.
- The main shape and the small shapes swap forms: the main shape takes the form of the small ones, and the small ones take the form of the main shape.
- Nothing else changes.
- Apply the same change to the third panel: a large hatched triangle pointing up, with small solid shapes: a diamond at the top-left corner and a diamond at the left side.
- So the missing panel shows a large hatched diamond, with small solid shapes: a triangle at the top-left corner and a triangle at the left side.
That was 1 puzzle. The full test has 25.
Sources
- Riverside Insights. Woodcock-Johnson V launch press release, February 3, 2025. blog.riversideinsights.com/woodcock-johnson-v-launch-pr
- LaForte, E. M., Dailey, D., & McGrew, K. S. (2025). WJ V Technical Abstract. Riverside Assessments, LLC. info.riversideinsights.com/hubfs/Clinical%20-%20Sales%20and%20Services%20Collateral/WJ%20V/WJ%20V%20Technical%20Abstract.pdf
- McGrew, K. S. (2023). Carroll's three-stratum (3S) cognitive ability theory at 30 years. Journal of Intelligence, 11(2), 32. doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11020032
- McGrew, K. S., Schneider, W. J., Decker, S. L., & Bulut, O. (2023). A psychometric network analysis of CHC intelligence measures. Journal of Intelligence, 11(1), 19. doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence11010019
- Carroll, J. B. (1993). Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor-analytic studies. Cambridge University Press. doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511571312
- Pearson. WAIS-5 overview brochure (C12396). 2025. www.pearsonassessments.com/content/dam/school/global/clinical/us/assets/wais-5/wais-5-overview-brochure.pdf