The correlates of the Weigl Color-Form Sorting Test in a group of 48 alcoholic inpatients were explored. It was predicted that Weigl performance would be related to conceptual flexibility (Trails B), verbal conceptual ability (Similarities), and symbol substitution (Digit Symbol). It was predicted further that the Weigl would be unrelated to Vocabulary and Trails A. Signifcant correlation coefficients for the Weigl were obtained with education, Vocabulary, Digit Symbol, and Trails B. However, a stepwise regression analysis disclosed that only Trails B was a significant predictor of Weigl performance.
Weigl developed the Color-Form Sorting Test to assess the process of abstract reasoning (Weigl, 1941), and it soon was incorporated into the Goldstein-Scheerer test battery for the evaluation of cortical brain function (Goldstein & Scheerer, 1941). The test consists of 12 colored figures comprised of circles, squares, and triangles. The instructions are to sort all 12 figures into groups and then to resort based on a different criterion. Typically, the figures are sorted on the basis of color or form and then resorted on the alternative basis. Goldstein and Scheerer have observed that when cortical function is disturbed, the subject is unable to assume the abstract approach. Consequently, the subject shows a preference for only one way of grouping the figures, and he or she is unable to shift to an alternative way of grouping.
Early supportive empirical studies of the Weigl used brain-damaged clinical groups (Kisker, 1944; McFie, 1960) and aged subjects (Silverman, Busse, Barnes, Frost, & Thaler, 1953;Thaler, 1956). Kisker (1944) studied patients who had received bilateral prefrontal lobotomy. He found that the operated patients could not shift their initial method of sorting, apparently due to impairment of the abstract attitude. Parker (1957) reported negative findings, in a study that compared a group of 30 adult, male, hospitalized patients with recent brain injuries to 30 control, medical patients. The two groups did not differ significantly in ability to shift the basis of sorting. Hopkins and Post (1955) obtained negative findings for cerebral pathology, but the failure to show a difference between the pathological and control groups resulted from confounding with age effects. In these elderly samples, rarely was performance at an abstract level found in subjectsnormal or pathological-older than 68 years.
Recent research has explored Weigl test results in psychiatric and alcoholic patients. Using psychiatric inpatients, Tamkin (1980) assessed its validity as an index of cortical function by observing the effects upon the Weigl of several factors known to affect brain function or to accompany dysfunction. The demographic factors of age and education were explored, as well as the test factors of verbal intelligence, conceptual ability, and recall of visual forms. Experiment 1 used 46 psychiatric patients, and Experiment 2, All subjects were selected from the Alcohol Treatment Unit, VA Medical Center,