Question

report writing on wechsler adult performance intelligence scale

Answer 1

The wechsler adult intelligence scale, third edition (WAIS-III)

The WAIS tradition started with the publication of the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale in 1939. This was revised and renamed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) in 1955, which in turn was revised as the WAIS-R in 1981. Like its predecessors the recently published WAIS-III is likely to represent the ‘gold standard’ against which other measures of intellectual ability are gauged. The WAIS-III was developed and co-normed with the Wechsler Memory Scale, third edition (WMS-III) (see below). Wechsler originally described intelligence as the ‘capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment’. The WAIS-III has normative data from 2450 individuals aged 16–89. The traditional Wechsler approach has been to administer a number of subtests, each tapping different aspects of intelligence, and then to reduce these to composite Verbal, Performance and Full-Scale IQ scores (VIQ, PIQ and FSIQ, respectively), each with an age-adjusted mean of 100 with a standard deviation of 15. This approach has been retained in the WAIS-III. Verbal IQ is calculated based on the sum of the following subtests: Vocabulary, Similarities, Arithmetic, Digit Span, Information and Comprehension. Performance IQ is calculated from the sum of the following subtests: Picture Completion, Digit Symbol coding, Block Design, Matrix Reasoning and Picture Arrangement. However, factor analytic studies have suggested that the subtests do not fall neatly into verbal and performance IQ; rather, four factors emerge: Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Organisation, Working Memory and Processing Speed. With the addition of three further subtests (Symbol Search, Letter-Number Sequencing and Object Assembly) it is also possible to calculate scores on these four indices. The WAIS-III is a significant improvement on its predecessors, with better norms, improved artwork for visually presented items and impressive reliability coefficients for IQ scales and indexes