Intelligence has been defined in multiple ways throughout history. In the last 100 years a psychometric approach to define the concept of intelligence has come to dominate the concept. This Commentary provides a brief overview of the history and concepts of intelligence with an emphasis on intellectual assessment. Particular focus is placed on the…

In this commentary, we reviewed two clinical validation studies on the Wechsler Scales conducted by Weiss and colleagues. These researchers used a rigorous within-battery model-fitting approach that demonstrated the factorial invariance of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) and Wechsler Adult Intelligence…

In surveying the literature on assessment of cognitive abilities in adults and children, it is easy to assume that the proliferation of test batteries and terminology reflects a poverty of unifying models. However, the lack of recognition accorded good models of cognitive abilities may reflect inattention to theoretical development and injudicious…

Intellectual assessment is central to the process of diagnosing an intellectual disability and the assessment process needs to be valid and reliable. One fundamental aspect of validity is that of measurement invariance, i.e. that the assessment measures the same thing in different populations. There are reasons to believe that measurement…

According to the most widely accepted Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model of intelligence measurement, each subtest score of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Adults (3rd ed.; WAIS-III) should reflect both 1st- and 2nd-order factors (i.e., 4 or 5 broad abilities and 1 general factor). To disentangle the contribution of each factor, we applied a…

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised subtests, as administered to 204 adults with low IQs, were factor analyzed. Solutions proved comparable to structures extracted from the normative data and to solutions based on other standardized tests for persons with low IQs. (Author)

Scores from 94 psychiatric and neurological patients on the 11 subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and the Halstead-Reitan Category and Finger Tapping tests were used in a factor analysis. The Category Test is not particularly sensitive to all types of brain pathology. (Author)

Factor analyzed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) across nine age groups in the standardization sample. When three- and four-factor analyses were performed, the familiar three-factor structure (Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Organization, and Freedom From Distractibility) was clearly visible. (Author/JAC)

The recent influx of students with disabilities into postsecondary education has generated a concomitant increase in the demand for psychoeducational assessments that include a measure of cognitive ability, either to identify ability-achievement discrepancies or to rule out alternate or comorbid diagnoses. The most commonly recommended cognitive…

The present study was designed to (1) investigate the changes in the structure and organization of mental abilities during childhood and adolescence of 514 students as sampled by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (5 to 15 years) and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (16 to 18 Years) and (2) interpret, and possibly modify, the…