A cautionary note on deviation scores for the WISC-III and WAIS-III.
This article highlights some dangers inherent in interpreting individual examinee strengths and weaknesses in WAIS-III and WISC-III profiles. In both manuals, there are tables providing point estimates for determining if a significant difference exists when comparing one subtest to the average of several subtests. However, these point estimates may lead to interpretation errors. A confidence interval approach that provides a solution to the interpretation problem is described and illustrated. These intervals show that differences between a single subtest score and the average subtest score that just reach statistical significance carry the potential of having no clinical significance.
Charter
Richard A
RA
Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Long Beach Healthcare System, California 90822, USA.
D003071:Cognition / Q000145:classification; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D006801:Humans; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014888:Wechsler Scales / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data