Vocabulary test performance of old and young adults: another look at qualitative scoring.
The hypothesis that qualitative scoring of the WAIS vocabulary subtest has the sensitivity to reveal an age decline generally masked by standard scoring in cross-sectional studies was tested by means of a comparison of responses of 26 college students and 26 alumni of the same university on the basis of both types of scoring, with the use of Botwinick and Storandt's (1974) criteria. The older Ss (means = 72.8 years) equalled or surpassed the young (means = 19.8) on every measure, tending to disconfirm the hypothesis. An explanation is offered for the finding that the performance of older Ss was superior to that of the young in this study but inferior in the research of Botwinick and Storandt which used the same methodology with Ss of lesser verbal ability: Older adults may generally respond less well to the early, most frequent test words but only high-ability older Ss outscore the young on the least frequent test words.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D012737:Sex Factors; D014825:Vocabulary; D014888:Wechsler Scales