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Evidence-based assessment refers to the use of research and theory to guide the selection of constructs to be used for a specific assessment purpose and to inform the methods and measures used in the assessment process. It involves the recognition that, even with data from psychometrically strong measures, the assessment process is inherently a decision-making task in which the clinician must iteratively formulate and test hypotheses by integrating data that are often incomplete and consistent. EBA has been found to help clinicians in cognitively debiasing their clinical decisions. Evidence-based assessment is part of a larger movement towards evidence-based practices.
EBA was first introduced in the field of medicine, and has been introduced to other fields, notably clinical psychology. The EBA approach is widely acknowledged to be an empirically driven method to clinical decision-making, and Cochrane reviews have reported the efficacy of EBA methods.