Prediction of WAIS scores from group ability tests
โ Scribed by Charles G. Watson; William G. Klett
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1973
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 324 KB
- Volume
- 29
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0021-9762
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
โฆ Synopsis
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is used only sparingIy in most institutional settings because of its time-consuming nature. I n a search for an adequate but efficient substitute, the authors have instituted three evaluations of the relationships between potential WAIS-substitutes and the WAIS itself. The present report describes the first of these researches-a study of the relationships between the four group ability tests and the WAIS in a mental hospital setting. The four were chosen because they are all relatively short and have shown promise in earlier research. They are the Science Research Associates (5) Tests of Educational Ability or TEA (Grades 9-12), the Schubert ( 3 ) General Ability Battery (%minute time limit procedure), the California ( 4 ) Short-form Test of Mental Maturity (level 5), and the Verbal Power Test of Concept Equivalence or VPT (Forms A and B) ( l ) .
METHOD
The Ss were 120 new admissions and readmissions to the St. Cloud Veterans Administration Hospital. All were male volunteers for the project under 60 years of age. The mean age and education of the sample were 38.8 (SD = 11.0) and 11.4 (SD = 2.5) years respectively. The mean length of their previous total months of psychiatric hospitalization was 15.5 months (SD = 33.8). The diagnoses of the sample were Schizophrenic Reaction ( 43), Anxiety Neurosis ( l l ) , Depressive Neurosis (lo), Alcoholic Addiction (9) , Manic Depressive Psychosis (9), Antisocial Personality (6), Habitual Excessive Drinking (5) , Organic Brain Syndrome (4), Episodic Excessive Drinking (3) , Hypochondriasis, Explosive Personality, Emotionally Unstable Personality, Drug Dependency, Passive Aggressive Personality and Inadequate Personality (2 each), Paranoid Personality, Adjustment Reaction to Adult Life, Paranoid State, and Mental Retardation (1 each). Four Ss were not assigned a psychiatric diagnosis before release from the hospital. The patients were administered the test individually by an MA-level research technician. The administration order of the tests was counterbalanced in an attempt to neutralize practice and fatigue effects.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
SRA Tests of Educational Ability ( T E A ) vs. WAIS. Correlations of the various ability test total scores or IQs with WAIS IQs and Full-Scale (FS) scaled scores are presented in Table 1.** The TEA Total I& and total raw score were quite satisfactory predictors and were better predictors of the four WAIS measures than was any one of the three subsection I& scores. I t is also interesting to note that the correlation between WAIS-FS scaled score and the TEA measures was slightly higher than that between WAIS-FS I& and the same TEA indices. These data support the view that the conversion of group test scores t o estimated WAIS scale score totals and subsequent translation of those scores to I& estimates leads to slightly more accurate prediction than conversion of group test measures directly to Full-scale I& estimates. *The authors are indebted to Joyce Bolt, John Hotz and Fred Stechmann for test administration; Douglas Anderson, Pat Thienes, Alice Zimmerman, and Bea Vogt for statistical analyses; and Kate Tidd, Helen Buerkle and Teresa Kucala for clerical support. **A table that describes correlations of WAIS IQs to TEA, California and Schubert subsection scores can be otbained from the author.
๐ SIMILAR VOLUMES
A third possibility is that these scores measure different functions in discrete nosological groups, or even in different individuals.' The authors favor this alternative, reasoning as follows: It is falacious to assume that a given Z score or F+% can be explained in terms of some constant factor wh