The division of some WAIS scales into Hold and Don't Hold tests has riot received consistent research support. Wechsler". p . *I3) himself pointed out that "while published studies have not given too much support to the claims of the author regarding the validity of the Hold-Don't Hold Index, it has proved of diagnostic value in clinical practice and merits further study." Indeed, Wechsler has introduced changes in the list of these tests. For the Wechsler-Bellevue Form I, the Hold tests included Information, Comprehension, Object Assembly and Picture Completion, and the Don't Hold tests included Digit Span, Arithmetic, Digit Symbol and Block Design. However, in the WAIS, Wechsler substituted Vocabulary for Comprehension and Similarities for Arithmetic.
The application of any deterioration index of the WAIS to brain damaged Ss is rather problematic. Reitan's) and Matthew, Guertin and Reitan (3) pointed out the differential results which can be expected depending on the location of the damage, emphasizing that performance tasks are more impaired in the case of right hemisphere damage while verbal tasks deteriorate more with left hemisphere damage. In this connection, Wechsler@) (1958) cites a study by Morrow and Mark") which suggests that bilateral lesions frequently result in lowered performance scores only, perhaps because of less extensive midline lesions. Obviously, a simple application of a deterioration index is insufficient with many types of organic damage which call for more complex kinds of pattern analysis to assess cognitive deficits. However, in cases of diffuse and symmetrical cerebral atrophy, a Hold-*The author wishes to expievv his gratitude to Dr.