What Is the Beta-III Test? Beta-4 and the Nonverbal IQ Line

The Beta-4, sometimes written Beta IV and preceded by the better-known Beta-III, is Pearson's nonverbal cognitive ability test for adults. It is a 30-minute, paper-and-pencil test built for people with limited literacy or limited English: no reading or verbal response is required, and it yields a General IQ Score from five nonverbal subtests. The test descends directly from the U.S. Army Beta of World War I, the examination created for recruits who could not read the written Army Alpha. This article covers the current Beta-4, what it measures, who uses it, and the century of history behind it.

In 1917 Robert Yerkes and a committee of psychologists built the Army's first mass intelligence-testing program, which evaluated about 1.5 million recruits during World War I. Literate recruits took the written Army Alpha; illiterate, unschooled, and non-English-speaking recruits took the Army Beta, administered largely by pantomime and demonstration. Its subtests included maze tracing, cube analysis, digit-symbol coding, number checking, and picture completion. The Army dropped the program after the war (today's military uses the ASVAB), but the Beta lived on as a civilian instrument: Pearson's own materials note the line has been "used and trusted in correctional settings since 1934." The Beta III arrived in the late 1990s, and the current Beta-4 was published by Pearson in 2016, credited to C. E. Kellogg and N. W. Morton. The family resemblance is still visible: the Beta-4's Coding, Clerical Checking, and Picture Completion subtests echo tasks from 1917.

Pearson describes the Beta-4 as "a nonverbal measure of cognitive abilities in adults" covering "fluid, spatial and nonverbal reasoning, visual information processing, and processing speed." The five subtests:

• Coding: Matching symbols to numbers quickly, a classic processing-speed task.

• Picture Completion: Identifying what is missing from an image.

• Clerical Checking: Rapidly judging whether paired items match.

• Picture Absurdities: Spotting what is wrong or impossible in a scene.

• Matrix Reasoning: Completing visual patterns, the same format explained in our guide to matrix reasoning tests.

Key specifications from Pearson's product materials: ages 16 through 99 and up, about 30 minutes, group or individual administration, hand scoring, administration instructions in English and Spanish, and a B qualification level, meaning trained technicians can administer it under appropriate oversight. Scores include scaled scores, percentile ranks, and a General IQ Score. The norm sample includes approximately 1,035 adults stratified to 2014 census data, and the test was validated against the Beta III and the WAIS-IV, Pearson's flagship adult IQ battery.

Pearson lists three primary uses: assessing intellectual ability in prison systems, evaluating employment readiness of new hires, and placing students in vocational schools. The design brief is fairness for test-takers a written test would mislabel: adults with low literacy, English learners, and, in clinical studies, populations including intellectual disability and ADHD. Because no reading is required, a low score reflects reasoning and speed rather than schooling in English.

Pearson markets the Beta-4 as "culturally fair assessment with no reading required," and removing reading demands genuinely removes a major source of unfairness. It is more accurate, though, to call nonverbal tests culture-reduced than culture-free: familiarity with pictures, puzzles, and speeded testing itself still varies across backgrounds, a point covered in our explainer on culture-fair intelligence tests. The honest claim for the Beta-4 is narrower and still valuable: it lets an examiner estimate general ability when a written test would measure literacy instead.

• "The Army still uses the Beta": The Army discontinued it after World War I. Military selection today runs on the ASVAB; the Beta line continued as a civilian product from 1934 on.

• "It's a literacy or personality test": It is a cognitive ability measure that deliberately removes reading demands. Nothing about personality is assessed.

• "Beta-III is the current version": The Beta-4 replaced it in 2016, retaining the same five subtests with updated norms and an age range extended to 99 and up.

A 30-minute test with five nonverbal subtests is a screening instrument. It deliberately omits verbal ability entirely, a feature for its target population and a limitation for anyone who wants a complete picture. General cognitive ability predicts real outcomes, including job performance, which is why brief ability screens persist in employment settings. But a full profile requires measuring more constructs separately. The Reasoning and Intelligence Online Test from RIOT IQ reports six indices, including verbal reasoning, working memory, and reaction time alongside the fluid, spatial, and speed abilities the Beta samples. If you can read this article, you can take a free IQ test and get the fuller profile the Beta was never designed to give.

Nonverbal cognitive screening of adults with limited literacy or English, mainly in corrections, vocational placement, and employment-readiness settings.

Yes, in screener form. It produces a General IQ Score from five nonverbal subtests but omits verbal ability by design.

About 30 minutes, paper-and-pencil, administered individually or in groups.

The Beta-4 replaced it in 2016. Beta-III now serves mainly as a validation anchor for its successor.

From the U.S. Army Beta of 1917, created so illiterate and non-English-speaking recruits could be tested without reading. The civilian line has run continuously since 1934.

1. Pearson. (2016). Beta-4 [Product page]. pearsonassessments.com

2. Pearson. Beta-4 flyer [PDF]. pearsonassessments.com

3. Yoakum, C. S., & Yerkes, R. M. (1920). Army mental tests. Henry Holt. Summarized in Wikipedia: Army Beta

4. Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 262-274. doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.124.2.262

5. Sackett, P. R., Zhang, C., Berry, C. M., & Lievens, F. (2022). Revisiting meta-analytic estimates of validity in personnel selection. Journal of Applied Psychology, 107(11), 2040-2068. doi.org/10.1037/apl0000994