“ The global capacity to act

purposefully, to think rationally,

and to deal effectively with one's
environment”

Wechsler Intelligence Scale

Third Edition
“Intelligence is the aggregate or global
capacity of the individual to act purposefully,
to think rationally and to deal effectively with
his environment.”
◦ Global because it characterizes individual’s
behavior as a whole
◦ Aggregate because it is composed of elements or
abilities that are qualitatively differentiable
Why did Wechsler create his own
test if Binet already made one?
 Binet’s test does not go with his philosophy of
what intelligence is..
 Opposition on Binet’s focus on language and
verbal skills to measure intelligence
 Capitalized that since Binet’s intelligence scale if
for children he concluded that it lacked validity
when answered by adults
 Binet’s emphasis on time handicaps older adults
 It did not consider that intellectual performance
deteriorates as a person grows older
 Mental age norms clearly did not apply to adults
Goal 1: Continuity and Familiarity
Goal 2: Updating of Norms
Goal 3: Extension of Age Range
Goal 4: Age-Corrected Norms
Goal 5: Improved Item Content
Goal 6: Improved Stimulus Materials
Goal 7: Improved Diagnostic and Descriptive
Utility
Goal 8: De-emphasis on Performance Speed
Goal 9: Enhancement of Fluid Reasoning
Assessment
Goal 10: Linkage with WMS–III and WIAT
Goal 11: Extensive Validity Studies
Goal 12: Enhancement of Scoring Rules
 Individual Administration
 Assessment of Cognitive Functioning in
Adults, Aged 16–89 Years
 Scale Composition
◦ 11 Subtests to Obtain IQ Scores
◦ 11 Subtests to Obtain Index Scores
◦ New Subtests: Matrix Reasoning, Symbol Search,
Letter–Number Sequencing
◦ Optional Subtest: Object Assembly
 Age
 Sex
 Race/Ethnicity
 Education Level
 Geographic Region

6
 16– 18– 20– 25– 30– 35– 45– 55– 65– 470– 75– 80– 85–
17 19 24 29 34 44 54 64 695- 74 79 84 89
54

WAIS–
200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 200 150 100
III

WMS–
100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 75 75
III
- Credits or points are assigned to each item
- An individual receives a specific amount of
credit for each item passed unlike Binet
- This scale makes it easier to group items of
particular content together
- The test yielded not just an overall score but
also a score for each individual ability in a
variety of content area
 A measure for nonverbal intelligence
 Individual’s comparison of verbal and non-
verbal intelligence
 Used to overcome biases in language, culture
and educational background.
 Provides clinician an opportunity to observe
behavior in standard setting because
performance test requires longer interval of
sustained effort, concentration and attention
than verbal tasks
 Structure of WAIS III
FSIQ

VIQ PIQ

VCI WMI POI PSI

- Vocabulary - Digit Span - Block Design - Digit Symbol—

- Similarities - Arithmetic - Matrix Reasoning Coding
- Information - Letter–Number - Picture Completion - Symbol Search
- Comprehension Sequencing - Picture Arrangement
Verbal Scales
- consists of subsets that requires verbal
response

Performance Scales
- consists of subsets that require the
individual to respond by performing
such as pointing to a missing detail
 Vocabulary
 Similarities
 Arithmetic
 Digit span
 Information
 Comprehension
 Letter-number sequencing
 Is the ability to define words
 The most stable measure of intelligence
 Individuals that show deterioration because of
emotional or brain damage shows that the
vocabulary subtests to be the last one affected.
 Mild concentration difficulties that lower optimal
performance do not affect vocabulary until they
become severe.
 Used to evaluate premorbid intelligence in some
cases
 Measures the degree to which one has learned,
been able to comprehend and verbally express
vocabulary 
 Consists of 15 paired items of increasing
difficulty
 Easier items just need responses from previously
learned associations i.e. ( How is bread and water
alike?) while difficult items require abstract
thinking as they are already dissimilar objects i.e.
(how is an ant and rose alike?)
 Character of person’s thought processes is seen
in many cases i.e. (schizophrenic giving
idiosyncratic concepts)
 Contains 15 relatively simple problems
 Retaining figures in memory while
manipulating it is the challenge
 Sample of ninth most difficult question:
“A person with $28 spends $.50, how much
does he have left?”
 The main aspect measured is concentration,
memory and reasoning
 Requires the subject to repeat digits, given at
the rate of one per second, forward and
backward.
 Measures short-term auditory memory
 Some non intellective factors that might
influence the results are anxiety
 Measures attention, concentration and mental
control 
 Measure subject range of knowledge
 Factors that tends to influence the test scores
are subjects curiosity and acquisition of
knowledge, alertness to environment and
alertness to cultural opportunities.
 Asks three type of questions:
- What should be done in a given situation
- Provision of a logical explanation for a rule
or phenomenon
- Definition of proverbs
 Measures judgment and common sense
 Emotional difficulties may affect the score of
a subject
 One of the newest of WAIS III subtest
 Not required to obtain verbal IQ score
 Made up of seven items in which subject is
asked to reorder lists of numbers and letters.
 It measures working memory and attention
 Picture completion
 Digit symbol-coding
 Block design
 Matrix reasoning
 Picture arrangement
 Object assembly
 Symbol search
 Subject is shown a picture wherein some
important detail is missing while timed
 Visual discrimination is measured
 Some factors that may affect the score are
visual-perceptual difficulties or
environmental awareness
 Subjects are given 120 seconds to copy
numbers from 1-9 each paired with a symbol
as much as they can
 Measures visual-motor dexterity, degree of
persistence, speed of performance and ability
to learn an unfamiliar task
 Age, inadequate visual acuity and motor
capabilities may affect the results
 Materials used are nine variously colored
blocks and a booklet with specific geometric
design or configuration
 Subject must arrange the block in
increasingly difficult designs
 Measures nonverbal concept formation,
abstract thinking and neurocognitive
impairment
 Enhances WAIS III assessment of fluid
intelligence
 Subject is presented with a nonverbal, figural
stimuli and is tasked on finding a pattern or
relationship between the stimuli
 Measures abstract reasoning, information
processing and fluid intelligence
 Requires subjects to notice relevant details,
cause and effect relationships.
 The test consists of 11 items, which consists
of related pictures similar to comic strips, the
subject must arrange the pictures in the right
order to tell a story
 Measures nonverbal reasoning ability and
interpretation of social situations
 Consists of puzzles that the subject have to
put together as quickly as possible
 Measures visual assembly and its
coordination with simple assembly skills
 Subject is shown two geometric figures. The
task is then to search from among a set of 5
additional search figures and determine
whether the target appears in the search
group. There are 60 items for which they are
given 120 sec.
 It measures cognitive processing abilities
FSIQ, VIQ, PIQ and
Index Scores
 Obtained by summing the age-corrected
scaled scores of the verbal subtests with the
performance subtests and comparing the
subject to the standardization sample
 Raw scores from the 5 performance scores
are converted to scaled scores
 PIQ is obtained by summing the age-
corrected scaled scores on the performance
subtests and comparing it with the
standardization sample
 VIQ is obtained by summing the age-
corrected scaled scores on the verbal
subtests and comparing it with the
standardization sample
 Verbal Perceptual Working Processing
Comprehension Organization Memory Speed

 Vocabulary • Picture • Arithmetic • Digit

Completion • Digit Span Symbol—Coding
 Similarities
• Block Design • Letter–Number • Symbol Search
 Information • Matrix Reasoning Sequencing
 Measures acquired knowledge and verbal
reasoning (crystallize intelligence)
 “Purer” measure for verbal IQ because of
exclusion of arithmetic and digit span test
 Measures Fluid Intelligence
 Factors that influence performance are
attentiveness to details and visual motor
integration
 Measures  the ability to actively hold
information in the mind needed to do
complex tasks such as reasoning,
comprehension and learning
 Measures How fast your mind works
 Standardization,
Validity and Reliability
 Consisted of 2450 adults divided into 13 age
groups from 16-17 through 85-59 then the
sample is stratified according to gender, race,
education and geographic region.
 Split Half method used on all subtests except
speeded test
 Average coefficients are .98 FSIQ, .97 VIQ and
.94 PIQ
 Test retest coefficients are .95 FSIQ, .94 VIQ
and .88 PIQ
 Standard error of measurements are 2.29
FSIQ, 2.50 VIQ and 3.75 PIQ
 95% confidence interval i.e. ( 95% with a 110
IQ score has a true score between 105.42 and
 It rests on its correlation with the earlier
WAIS-R and WISC-III (where the ages overlap)
 WAIS III correlate with the third edition of
WISC with .94 VIQ, .86 PIQ and .93 FSIQ.
 Verbal and Performance Comparisons
 Pattern Analysis
 Provides a measure of nonverbal intelligence
in conjunction with verbal intelligence
 i.e. Subject has VIQ of 55 but has PIQ of 100
even though the FSIQ falls into 70 it doesn't
mean the individual is retarded rather the
difference might be attributed to
environmental variables (language, cultural
and educational factors)
 Evaluation of relatively large differences
between subtest scaled scores
 As stated earlier different factors might affect
the performance of the subject in a subtest
thus using pattern analysis this factors can be
isolated.
 Raw scores are converted to scaled scores
with a mean of 10 and SD of 3
 The norms derived for this conversions are:
age adjusted and reference group norms
 Age adjusted norms are created by preparing
a normalized cumulative frequency
distribution of raw scores from each age
group.
 Reference group norms are based from the
performance of participants in the
 Age-Adjusted Scaled Scores
Reference
Group
SUBTESTS Raw
Score VERBAL PERF. VC PO WM PS Scaled
Scores

Picture Completion 22 12 12 12
Vocabulary 56 13 13 15
Digit-Symbol Coding 54 7 7 6
Similarities 28 12 12 13

Block Design 41 11 11 10
Arithmetic 11 8 8 9

Matrix Reasoning 20 13 13 12
IQ/Index Scores VIQ PIQ FSIQ

Sums of Scaled Scores 62 55 117

IQ/Index Scores 101 106 103

Percentiles 53 66 58

Confidence Intervals
96-106 99-112 99-107
95%
 Total 67 70 = 137
÷ No. of Subtests 7 7 ÷ 14
Mean Score 9.57 10 Overall Mean 9.79

Frequency of
Differenc Statistical Difference in
Scaled Mean e from Significance . Strength Weakness Standardization
05 Level (+) (–) Sample
SUBTESTS Score Score Mean

Vocabulary 13 9.57 3.43 2.10 5 <5%

Similarities 12 9.57 2.43 2.77
Arithmetic 8 9.57 –1.57 2.63
Digit Span 7 9.57 –2.57 2.40 W >25%
Information 11 9.57 1.43 2.34
Comprehension 11 9.57 1.43 2.96
 Statistical Frequency of
DISCREPANCY Score Score Difference Significance Difference in
.05 Level Standardization
COMPARISONS 1 2 Sample

Verbal IQ
VIQ 101 PIQ 106 -5 8.48
–Performance IQ
Verbal Comprehension –
VCI 110 POI 111 -1 9.78
Perceptual Organization
Verbal Comprehension
VCI 110 WMI 80 30 9.08 2.3%
– Working Memory
Perceptual Organization POI 111 PSI 79 32 12.13 2.6%
– Processing Speed

Digits Forward – Backward FWD BKWD

7 5 2 60%