The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is an
IQ test
An intelligence quotient (IQ) is a total score derived from a set of standardized tests or subtests designed to assess human intelligence. The abbreviation "IQ" was coined by the psychologist William Stern (psychologist), William Stern for th ...
designed to measure
intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...
and
cognitive ability
Cognitive skills, also called cognitive functions, cognitive abilities or cognitive capacities, are brain-based skills which are needed in acquisition of knowledge, manipulation of information and reasoning. They have more to do with the mechanisms ...
in adults and older adolescents.
The original WAIS (Form I) was published in
February
February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The month has 28 days in common years or 29 in leap years, with the 29th day being called the ''leap day''. It is the first of five months not to have 31 days (th ...
1955 by
David Wechsler
David Wechsler (; January 12, 1896 – May 2, 1981) was a Romanian-American psychologist. He developed well-known intelligence scales, such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). A ...
, as a revision of the Wechsler–Bellevue Intelligence Scale, released in 1939.
It is currently in its fourth edition (''WAIS-IV'') released in 2008 by
Pearson Pearson may refer to:
Organizations Education
*Lester B. Pearson College, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
*Pearson College (UK), London, owned by Pearson PLC
*Lester B. Pearson High School (disambiguation)
Companies
*Pearson PLC, a UK-based int ...
, and is the most widely used IQ test, for both adults and older adolescents, in the world.
History
The WAIS is founded on Wechsler's definition of
intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...
, which he defined as "... the global capacity of a person to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment." He believed that intelligence was made up of specific elements that could be isolated, defined, and subsequently measured. However, these individual elements were not entirely independent, but were all interrelated. His argument, in other words, is that general intelligence is composed of various specific and interrelated functions or elements that can be individually measured.
This theory differed greatly from the
Binet scale Binet is surname of French origin, shared by the following people:
*Alfred Binet, a 19th-century French psychologist and inventor of the first usable intelligence test.
**The Stanford-Binet IQ test is partially named after Alfred Binet.
* Charles ...
which, in Wechsler's day, was generally considered the supreme authority with regard to intelligence testing. A drastically revised new version of the Binet scale, released in 1937, received a great deal of criticism from
David Wechsler
David Wechsler (; January 12, 1896 – May 2, 1981) was a Romanian-American psychologist. He developed well-known intelligence scales, such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). A ...
(after whom the original Wechsler–Bellevue Intelligence scale and the modern Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale IV are named).
* Wechsler was a very influential advocate for the concept of non-intellective factors, and he felt that the 1937 Binet scale did not do a good job of incorporating these factors into the scale (non-intellective factors are variables that contribute to the overall score in intelligence, but are not made up of intelligence-related items. These include things such as lack of confidence, fear of failure, attitudes, etc.).
* Wechsler did not agree with the idea of a single score that the Binet test gave.
* Wechsler argued that the Binet scale items were not valid for adult test-takers because the items were chosen specifically for use with children.
* The "Binet scale's emphasis on speed, with timed tasks scattered throughout the scale, tended to unduly handicap older adults."
* Wechsler believed that "mental age norms clearly did not apply to adults."
* Wechsler criticized the then existing Binet scale because "it did not consider that intellectual performance could deteriorate as a person grew older."
These criticisms of the 1937 Binet test helped produce the Wechsler–Bellevue scale, released in 1939. However, the present-day WAIS-IV has contradicted many of these criticisms, by incorporating a single overall score, using multiple timed tasks, focusing on intellective items and other ways. While this scale has been revised (resulting in the present day WAIS-IV), many of the original concepts Wechsler argued for, have become standards in
psychological testing
Psychological testing is the administration of psychological tests. Psychological tests are administered by trained evaluators. A person's responses are evaluated according to carefully prescribed guidelines. Scores are thought to reflect individ ...
, including the point-scale concept and the performance-scale concept.
Wechsler–Bellevue Intelligence Scale
The Wechsler–Bellevue tests were innovative in the 1930s because they:
# gathered tasks created for nonclinical purposes for administration as a "clinical test battery",
# used the point scale concept instead of the age scale, and
# included a non-verbal performance scale.
Point scale concept
In the Binet scales (prior to the 1986 version) items were grouped according to age level. Each of these age levels was composed of a group of tasks that could be passed by two-thirds to three-quarters of the individuals in that level. This meant that items were not arranged according to content. Additionally, an individual taking a Binet test would only receive credit if a certain number of the tasks were completed. This meant that falling short just one task required for the credit, resulted in no credit at all (for example, if passing three out of four tasks was required to receive credit, then passing two yielded no credit).
The point scale concept significantly changed the way testing was done by assigning credits or points to each item. This had two large effects. First, this allowed items to be grouped according to content. Second, participants were able to receive a set number of points or credits for each item passed. The result was a test that could be made up of different content areas (or subtests) with both an overall score and a score for each content area. In turn, this allowed for an analysis to be made of an individual's ability in a variety of content areas (as opposed to one general score).
The Non-Verbal Performance Scale
The non-verbal performance scale was also a critical difference from the Binet scale. The earlier Binet scale had been persistently and consistently criticized for its emphasis on language and verbal skills.
Wechsler designed an entire scale that allowed the measurement of non-verbal intelligence. This became known as a performance scale. This scale required a subject to actively do something, such as copying symbols or pointing to a missing detail in a picture, rather than just answering questions. This was an important development, as it attempted to overcome biases that were caused by "language, culture, and education."
Further, this scale also provided an opportunity to observe a different type of behavior, because something physical was required. Clinicians were able to observe how a participant reacted to the "longer interval of sustained effort, concentration, and attention" that the performance tasks required.
As the Wechsler–Bellevue scale was the first to effectively use the performance scale, it also introduced the "possibility of directly comparing an individual's verbal and nonverbal intelligence".
This was possible as "the results of both scales were expressed in comparable units".
The Binet scale did have performance tasks, but they were geared toward younger children. The Wechsler-Bellevue was also unique in that there were entire tests that were considered supplements or alternatives, including "performance" measures such as the Leiter International Performance Scale.
WAIS
The WAIS was initially created as a revision of the Wechsler–
Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. It may refer to:
Placenames
Australia
* Bellevue, Western Australia
* Bellevue Hill, New South Wales
* Bellevue, Queensland
* Bellevue, Glebe, an historic house in Sydney, New South Wales
Canada ...
Intelligence Scale (WBIS), which was a battery of tests published by Wechsler in 1939. The WBIS was composed of subtests that could be found in various other intelligence tests of the time, such as
Robert Yerkes
Robert Mearns Yerkes (; May 26, 1876 – February 3, 1956) was an American psychologist, ethologist, eugenicist and primatologist best known for his work in intelligence testing and in the field of comparative psychology.
Yerkes was a pioneer ...
' army testing program and the
Binet-
Simon
Simon may refer to:
People
* Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon
* Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon
* Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...
scale. The WAIS was first released in February 1955 by
David Wechsler
David Wechsler (; January 12, 1896 – May 2, 1981) was a Romanian-American psychologist. He developed well-known intelligence scales, such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). A ...
. Because the Wechsler tests included non-verbal items (known as ''performance scales'') as well as verbal items for all test-takers, and because the 1960 form of
Lewis Terman
Lewis Madison Terman (January 15, 1877 – December 21, 1956) was an American psychologist and author. He was noted as a pioneer in educational psychology in the early 20th century at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. He is best known f ...
's
Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales
The Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales (or more commonly the Stanford–Binet) is an individually-administered intelligence test that was revised from the original Binet–Simon Scale by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon. The Stanford–Binet In ...
was less carefully developed than previous versions, Form I of the WAIS surpassed the Stanford–Binet tests in popularity by the 1960s.
WAIS-R
The WAIS-R, a revised form of the WAIS, was released in 1981 and consisted of six verbal and five performance subtests. The verbal tests were: Information, Comprehension, Arithmetic, Digit Span, Similarities, and Vocabulary. The Performance subtests were: Picture Arrangement, Picture Completion, Block Design, Object Assembly, and Digit Symbol. A verbal IQ, performance IQ and full scale IQ were obtained.
This revised edition did not provide new validity data, but used the data from the original WAIS; however new norms were provided, carefully stratified.
WAIS-III
![Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale subscores and subtests](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Wechsler_Adult_Intelligence_Scale_subscores_and_subtests.png)
The WAIS-III, a subsequent revision of the WAIS and the WAIS-R, was released in 1997. It provided scores for Verbal IQ, Performance IQ, and Full Scale IQ, along with four secondary indices (Verbal Comprehension, Working Memory, Perceptual Organization, and Processing Speed).
Verbal IQ (VIQ)
Included seven tests and provided two sub-indices; verbal comprehension and
working memory
Working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity that can hold information temporarily. It is important for reasoning and the guidance of decision-making and behavior. Working memory is often used synonymously with short-term memory, ...
.
The Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) included the following tests:
* Information
* Similarities
* Vocabulary
The Working Memory Index (WMI) included:
* Arithmetic
* Digit Span
* Letter-Number-Sequencing
Subtest(s) not included in the sub-indices:
* Comprehension
Supplementary subtest(s) (Only to be used for total VIQ index scoring and specified sub-index):
* Letter-Number-Sequencing
Performance IQ (PIQ)
Included six tests and it also provided two sub-indices; perceptual organization and processing speed.
The Perceptual Organization Index (POI) included:
*
Block Design
In combinatorial mathematics, a block design is an incidence structure consisting of a set together with a family of subsets known as ''blocks'', chosen such that frequency of the elements satisfies certain conditions making the collection of bl ...
* Matrix Reasoning
* Picture Completion
The Processing Speed Index (PSI) included:
*
Digit Symbol-Coding
Digit symbol substitution test (DSST) is a neuropsychological test sensitive to brain damage, dementia, age and depression.
The test is not sensitive to the location of brain-damage (except for damage comprising part of the visual field). It consis ...
* Symbol Search
Subtest(s) not included in the sub-indices:
* Picture Arrangement
Supplementary subtests (Only to be used for total PIQ index scoring and specified sub-index):
* Object Assembly
* Symbol Search
WAIS-IV
![WAIS-IV test structure](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/WAIS-IV_test_structure.png)
The current version of the test, the WAIS-IV, which was released in 2008, is composed of 10 core subtests and five supplemental subtests, with the 10 core subtests yielding scaled scores that sum to derive the Full Scale IQ. With the WAIS-IV, the verbal/performance IQ scores from previous versions were removed and replaced by the index scores. The General Ability Index (GAI) was included, which consists of the Similarities, Vocabulary and Information subtests from the
Verbal Comprehension Index
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is an IQ test designed to measure intelligence and cognitive ability in adults and older adolescents. The original WAIS (Form I) was published in February 1955 by David Wechsler, as a revision of th ...
and the Block Design, Matrix Reasoning and Visual Puzzles subtests from the
Perceptual Reasoning Index
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is an IQ test designed to measure intelligence and cognitive ability in adults and older adolescents. The original WAIS (Form I) was published in February 1955 by David Wechsler, as a revision of the ...
. The GAI is clinically useful because it can be used as a measure of cognitive abilities that are less vulnerable to impairments of processing speed and
working memory
Working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity that can hold information temporarily. It is important for reasoning and the guidance of decision-making and behavior. Working memory is often used synonymously with short-term memory, ...
.
Index scores and scales
There are four index scores representing major components of intelligence:
* Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI)
* Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI)
* Working Memory Index (WMI)
* Processing Speed Index (PSI)
Two broad scores, which can be used to summarize general intellectual ability, can also be derived:
* Full Scale IQ (FSIQ), based on the total combined performance of the VCI, PRI, WMI, and PSI
* General Ability Index (GAI), based only on the six subtests that the VCI and PRI comprise.
Standardization
The WAIS-IV was standardized on a sample of 2,200 people in the United States, ranging in age from 16 to 90.
The demographic characteristics of the sample were modeled after the proportions of different groups in an analysis of data from the
U.S. Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
. An extension of the standardization has been conducted with 688 Canadians in the same age range.
Age range and uses
The WAIS-IV measure is acceptable for use with people who are 16–90 years of age. For people younger than 16, the
Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) is an intelligence test designed for children ages 2 years 6 months to 7 years 7 months developed by David Wechsler in 1967. It is a descendant of the earlier Wechsler Adult Intelligen ...
(WPPSI, 2½–7 years, 7 months) and the
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) is an individually administered intelligence test for children between the ages of 6 and 16. The Fifth Edition (WISC-V; Wechsler, 2014) is the most recent version.
The WISC-V takes 45 to 65 minut ...
(WISC, 6–16 years) are used.
Intelligence tests may be used to assess the level of cognitive functioning in individuals with psychiatric illness or brain injury. Rehabilitation psychologists and
neuropsychologists
Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how a person's cognition and behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Professionals in this branch of psychology often focus on how injuries or illnesses of ...
use
neuropsychological test
Neuropsychological tests are specifically designed tasks that are used to measure a psychological function known to be linked to a particular brain structure or pathway. Tests are used for research into brain function and in a clinical setting f ...
s (including the WAIS-IV) to assess how the individual's brain is functioning after it has been injured. Specific subtests can provide insight into specific cognitive functions; for example, the digit span subtest could be used to look for attentional difficulties.
The Wechsler tests can also be used to identify
intellectual giftedness
Intellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average. It is a characteristic of children, variously defined, that motivates differences in school programming. It is thought to persist as a trait into adult life, wi ...
, and are commonly accepted as qualifying evidence for
high-IQ societies, such as
Mensa,
Intertel
Intertel (previously the International Legion of Intelligence) is a high-IQ society founded in 1966, that is open to those who have scored at or above the 99th percentile (top 1%) on one of various standardized tests of intelligence. It has been ...
and the
Triple Nine Society
The Triple Nine Society (TNS) is an international high IQ society for adults whose score on a standardized test demonstrates an IQ at or above the 99.9th percentile of the human population. The society recognizes scores from over 20 different t ...
.
WASI-II
The Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence - 2nd edition (WASI-II) is a short psychological test that was developed in 2011 by Pearson to estimate intellectual functioning in a shorter period of time than the WAIS-IV.
The WASI-II only has 4 subtests: Block Design, Vocabulary, Similarities, and Matrix Reasoning, compared to the 10 core subtests that are present in the WAIS-IV. These 4 subtests have the same structure as the similarly-named subtests on the WAIS-IV, but have different questions.
The WASI-II can derive 4 composite scores from a combination of the 4 subtests. A Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) can be derived from the raw scores on the Vocabulary and Similarities subtests. A Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI) can be derived from the raw scores on the Matrix Reasoning and Block Design subtests. A Full Scale IQ-2 (FSIQ-2) can be derived from the raw scores on the Matrix Reasoning and Vocabulary subtests, while a Full Scale IQ-4 (FSIQ-4) can be derived from the raw scores on all 4 subtests.
WASI-II Subtests grouped by index
See also
*
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) is an individually administered intelligence test for children between the ages of 6 and 16. The Fifth Edition (WISC-V; Wechsler, 2014) is the most recent version.
The WISC-V takes 45 to 65 minut ...
*
Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) is an intelligence test designed for children ages 2 years 6 months to 7 years 7 months developed by David Wechsler in 1967. It is a descendant of the earlier Wechsler Adult Intelligen ...
References
Further reading
*
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*
External links
FAQ/Finding Information About Psychological Tests (American Psychological Association)Classics in the History of Psychology
{{Authority control
Intelligence tests
Cognitive tests
Neuropsychological tests