Prediction of reading and related academic problems.

Conducted a 5-yr longitudinal study to (a) compare psychometric vs behavioral kindergarten predictors of reading performance and (b) examine the effect on reading performance of particular classroom and school environments. Two cohorts of approximately 850 middle-class kindergarten children were administered a psychometric battery (e.g., the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence and the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test). Also, a Student Rating Scale consisting of 41 classroom behavior items representing 5 factors was completed for each S by the kindergarten teacher. The scale proved equal to the best psychometric measures in predicting reading test scores in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades. Inclusion of classroom and school variables enhanced the prediction. Particularly instructive were analyses of false positive and negative prediction patterns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological testing and functional outcome for individuals with traumatic brain injury

The relationship between performance on neuropsychological measures and the vocational and independent living functioning of individuals with traumatic brain injury was examined. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) IQ and Stroop Color and Word Test scores differentiated individuals who required no assistance with activities of daily living from those requiring some level of assistance. Only the Stroop Color and Word Test scores differentiated individuals who were competitively employed or engaged in degree-oriented education from those who were unemployed or in sheltered or supported employment. Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) scores did not differentiate these groups.     

Effects of patient age on neuropsychological test interpretation.

Normative test data for a 38-year-old and for a 74-year-old were obtained for the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery (HRNB), the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised (WAIS—R), and the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS). These test protocols were presented for blind interpretation to a random sample of psychologists specializing in neuropsychology. Test results for the "average" elderly person were interpreted as normal less frequently (42%) than results for the "average" younger adult (93%). The elderly person's test results also received higher impairment ratings and were frequently interpreted as reflecting dementia (23%). S's level of confidence with decisions made did not have an impact on accuracy rates. In addition, personal, training, and professional variables were not significantly related to judgment accuracy. The results suggest a tendency for misinterpretation of normal elderly persons' test performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Growth factor receptor expression during in vitro differentiation of partially purified populations containing murine stem cells

The Word Accentuation Test assesses the accentuation of 30 infrequent Spanish words written without the accentuation mark and is an easy-to-use tool for estimating premorbid intelligence of Spanish-speaking people. Its intraobserver (0.97) and interobserver (0.93) reliabilities and its correlation with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (.837) and Raven's Progressive Matrices (.655) are high, offering a good prediction of general intelligence. It is resistant to mental deterioration; 20 demented and 40 controls matched by sex, age, and education obtained similar scores. The discrepancies between current and predicted scores in Raven's scale can diagnose mild-moderate dementia with 0.79 accuracy (sensitivity, 0.78; specificity, 0.82).     

Predictors of success within a behavior modification program among male adolescents

48 adolescents placed into a short-term diagnostic group home with a behavior modification program in place were studied. Each subject was administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--III and the Screener version of the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test. Assessment data were used to predict the subjects' conduct within the behavioral program as a method of strengthening pretreatment recommendations for planning. Analysis showed that verbal and mathematical skills were significant predictors of the criterion behaviors. These results support the use of cognitive assessment as valid methods of predicting the behavior of teenagers within residential behavior modification programs.     

Evidence that IQ scores are irrelevant to the definition and analysis of reading disability.

250 reading disabled and 719 nondisabled Ss (aged 7–16 yrs) with IQs ranging primarily from 80 to 110 were divided into groups based on scores from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Revised (WISC—R), the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, and Vocabulary and Block Design subtests. Ss were assessed, using the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Ability, the Goldman-Fristoe-Woodcock Sound-Symbol Test, the Gilmore Oral Reading Test, and subtests of other measures. Results show that the presence or absence of reading disability was a better predictor of performance than IQ test scores on tasks involving reading, spelling, understanding of syntax, and short-term and working memory. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Executive function deficits in mild Alzheimer's disease.

Twenty mildly impaired patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD; Mini-Mental State Examination; [MMSE]?=?25.1) and 20 controls (MMSE?=?29.4) were administered 7 tests to assess executive function. Tests of memory, naming, and copying were included. The executive function tests were the Self-Ordering Test, Controlled Oral Word Association Test (FAS), Trail Making Test, Hukok Logical Matrices, the Proverb Interpretation Test, the Similarities subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised, and the Cued Reaction Time Test. AD patients differed significantly from controls on 4 executive function tests (the Self-Ordering, Hukok, Trail Making, and FAS) and on the memory test. The executive function tasks on which the AD patients were impaired in comparison with controls primarily required concurrent manipulation of information. Tests of simple concept formation, cue-directed behavior, attention, naming, or figure copying did not differentiate the groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When a scale measures more than its name denotes: the case of the Test Anxiety Scale for Children

Administered a revision of the Test Anxiety Scale for Children (TASC) on which there were separate comparative Self-Evaluation and Anxiety scales to 133 females and 131 males in Form 1 (equivalent to Grade 6). Ss also responded to self-report measures (self-concept of attainment, causal attribution, independent reading, and friendship choices), and teachers rated Ss on their classroom behavior. Findings indicate that correlations between Ss' TASC scores and variables that had been found to be related to the original scale and assumed to be affected by anxiety were generally higher for the Self-Evaluation scale than the Anxiety scales. It is suggested that many results with the TASC may be better interpreted in terms of self-evaluation than anxiety effects. Results with measures of causal attributions suggest that self-evaluation measures are more effective predictors of achievement behavior than anxiety measures because anxiety is but one of a number of possible consequences of poor self-evaluation that could mediate relatively unproductive achievement behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Natural forms of shed tumor gangliosides

Data on activity states were collected from 29 group-housed capuchin monkey (Cebus apella) infants for 3 h each week from birth to 11 weeks of age. The amounts of time spent in sleeping/drowsy, alert-quiet, and alert-active states were measured in these subjects. Videotaped observations of these infants were recorded 3 times/week in the home cage over the first year of life and were scored for a number of social and exploratory behaviors. The extent to which early infant activity state scores predicted later behavior in the home cage was examined. Infant state measures correlated significantly with home cage behavior during months 2-6 in that infants that had been more active in early infancy spent more time alone, with other animals, and in exploration and play and less time with mothers than did quieter infants. Early state measures were less successful in predicting home cage scores beyond 8 months of age, whereas differences in behavior attributable to housing variables became more salient in the latter part of the first year. There was also a negative correlation between mother and infant activity in months 2 and 3, in that more sedentary mothers tended to have more active infants.     

Sex differences in brain and personality correlates of the ability to identify popular word associations.

The ability of men to identify popular word associations had earlier been shown to be affected by left-sided thalamic surgery for movement disorders; now, over a year later, the impairment has been observed with operations on both sides. In addition, upon testing at approximately the same time interval, men who had undergone temporal lobe surgery for epilepsy have also shown the impairment. In contrast, women have improved after the operations. The Word Association Test (WAT) requires a subject to identify popular word associations to 54 words. In a large group of unoperated subjects, the errors on the WAT were greater for men than for women, although the men scored higher on the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale (WB). WAT scores were found to correlate with scores on the WB and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), and the WAT scores of the men tended to show a higher correlation with these measures than did those of the women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessment of executive function in patients with mild traumatic brain injury

BACKGROUND: The nature of functional deficit after mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) defined by Glasgow Coma Score of 13-15 is not fully described. This study explored the sensitivity of several neuropsychological tests to identify sequelae of mild traumatic brain injury (TBI). METHODS: Eleven adult patients with mild TBI admitted to a Level 1 trauma center were studied. The battery of tests included the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children -Revised: Mazes Subtest, Trails A and B, the Boston Naming Test, The Multilingual Aphasia Examination: Controlled Oral Word Association Test, and the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task. RESULTS: Control subjects performed significantly better than patients with mild TBI on Trails A and B, the Controlled Oral Word Association Test, and Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (subtests 2-4). No significant differences in performances between patients and controls was found for the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children -Revised: Mazes Subtest, Boston Naming Test, and Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task Subtest 1. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that tests of specific frontal lobe executive functions are valuable in diagnosing and monitoring recovery from mild TBI.     

Detection of malingered mental retardation.

In a cross-validation of results from L. O. Graue et al. (2007), standard psychological assessment instruments, as well as tests of neurocognitive and psychiatric feigning, were administered under standard instructions to 24 participants diagnosed with mild mental retardation (MR) and 10 demographically matched community volunteers (CVH). A 2nd group of 25 community volunteers was instructed to malinger MR (CVM) during testing. CVM participants obtained Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (3rd ed.; D. Wechsler, 1997) Full Scale Intelligence Quotient scores that were significantly lower than the demographically similar CVH group but comparable to the MR group, suggesting that CVM subjects feigned cognitive impairment. On the basis of standard cutting scores from test manuals or published articles, of the 11 feigning measures administered, only the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM; T. N. Tombaugh, 1996) retention trial had a specificity rate >.90 in the MR group. However, the 2nd learning trial of the TOMM, as well as a short form of the Digit Memory Test (T. J. Guilmette, K. J. Hart, A. J. Guiliano, & B. E. Leininger, 1994), approached this level of specificity, with both at .88. These results raise concerns about the specificity rates at recommended cutting scores of commonly used feigning tests in defendants with MR. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-modal and intramodal transfer as predictors of mental development in full-term and preterm infants.

25 full-term (FT) and 33 preterm (PT) infants who had participated in studies of cross-modal (CM) and intramodal (IM) transfer at 12 mo of age were seen at older ages to assess the predictive validity of these early measures for later cognition. FT Ss were administered the Bayley Scales of Infant Development at 24 mo of age; PT Ss were administered these scales at 12 and 24 mo of age, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (Form L-M) at 34 and 40 mo of age, and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Revised and the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration at 6 yrs of age. For FT Ss, both 12-mo measures were significantly related to 24-mo Bayley Mental Development Index (MDI) scores; for PT Ss, both 12-mo measures were related not only to 24-mo Bayley MDI but to each subsequent measure of cognitive outcome through 6 yrs. 12-mo IM scores were highly correlated with the 6-yr assessment of visual–motor integration. A measure of object permanence obtained at 12 mo was also related to cognitive outcome, but not so consistently as were the other 2 12-mo measures. Although parental education was a significant predictor beginning at 24 mo, multiple regression analyses indicated that the CM and the IM measures substantially increased the percentage of variance in outcome that could be accounted for by parental education alone. (61 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

External validity of the profile variability index for the K-ABC, Stanford-Binet, and WISC-R: another cul de-sac

Clinicians often attach interpretive significance to high variability among subtest scores in IQ profiles of adults and children. In this study we evaluated the external validity of a relatively new measure of IQ subtest variability, the profile variability index (PVI). Within a sample of referred children, we administered the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, the Fourth Edition Stanford-Binet, and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised. We calculated PVIs for each child from each test and correlated these values with achievement scores and indexes of discrepancy between actual and predicted scholastic achievement. Against these external criteria, PVI information from all three cognitive-ability batteries had essentially nil validity. We discuss implications of these findings for future research in this area.     

The Preliminary Diagnostic Questionnaire (PDQ): Functional assessment of employability.

Evaluated the 1st author's (1981) PDQ, cognitive, physical, emotional, and dispositional components of employability, using 2,972 adult applicants to vocational rehabilitation agencies. Selected scores were predictive of earnings and employment at the minimum wage. Significant correlations with the General Aptitude Test Battery, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), and the Wide Range Achievement Test were also obtained. Evidence is presented for test–retest reliability and internal consistency as well as for criterion-related, construct, and content validity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Item equivalence across scales: The WPPSI—R and WISC-III.

The publication of 2 Wechsler scales with multiple overlapping items, the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence—Revised (WPPSI—R) and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (WISC-III), provided an opportunity to cross-validate items. Test–age equivalents corresponding to cumulative item raw scores were extracted from the manuals or estimated with ratio scores (and checked against regression-based values). WPPSI—R test–age equivalents correlated highly with WISC-III test–age equivalents (r?=?.88 for the 23 overlapping items), and there were few noteworthy discrepancies. These data demonstrate the validity of the WPPSI—R and WISC-III beyond the level of subtests and IQs and to the level of item makeup. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation of aptitudes to learning at different points in time during instruction.

Examined one possible reason for the lack of consistent findings in aptitude–treatment interaction research, namely, the instability of aptitude–learning relations over time. Four classes with 101 10th–12th graders were taught an imaginary science over a 4-day period. Achievement measures devised by the experimenter were obtained each day. Ss completed 14 aptitude measures prior to instruction, and 5 additional aptitude scores were obtained from student records; these 19 tests included parts or all of the Kit of Factor-Referenced Cognitive Tests, the Culture Fair Intelligence Test, and the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills. Component scores from a derived principal-components solution to the intercorrelations of the aptitude scores were then correlated with each of the achievement scores. Results indicate that some aptitude–achievement relations were not stable over time and that this instability was exhibited in different aptitudes being required at different times during instruction. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Kindergarten competencies as predictors of third-grade classroom behavior and achievement.

To investigate the relationships between preschool competencies and later academic functioning, multiple regression analyses were conducted using kindergarten intellectual, academic, and social variables (Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, Wide Range Achievement Test, teacher ratings of academic readiness, and the Sells Teacher Rating Scale of Peer Relations) to predict 3rd-grade classroom behavior and achievement. A random sample (n?=?50) of 184 3rd-grade children evaluated during the 1973–1974 kindergarten year and a 2nd sample (n?=?49) with additional Time 1 social and background variables were included. Ss were observed in classrooms and administered achievement tests during the 1976–1977 school year. Results indicate that kindergarten social and academic competencies typically entered as optimal predictors of later achievement-related behaviors and achievement. A social competence measure of initiative was a particularly successful predictor of achievement. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Digit Symbol and Symbol Digit Modalities Tests: Are they directly interchangeable?

45 persons (aged 19–74 yrs) referred for neuropsychological evaluation were administered both the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) and the Digit Symbol (DS) subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). SDMT and DS scores correlated very highly (r?=?.91). Relative to the tests' normative populations, however, the SDMT yielded scores for individual Ss that were the equivalent of 4–5 WAIS age-scaled points lower than obtained DS age-scaled scores. Results indicate that SDMT and DS scores cannot be presumed to be directly interchangeable in clinical use and suggest a general need for caution when interpreting interest patterns across measures normed on different populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Association between sleep duration and intelligence scores in healthy children.

We examined the association between sleep behavior and cognitive functioning in 60 healthy children between 7 and 11 years of age under nonexperimental conditions. Intellectual abilities were assessed by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (4th edition) and sleep variables by questionnaires, actigraphy, and sleep diaries. Correlation analysis revealed a negative association between sleep duration on weekends and measures of intelligence (full-scale IQ, r = ?.29; fluid IQ, r = ?.36). The regression coefficient for sleep duration on weekends was ?6.11 (SE = 2.09), indicating an increase of 6.11 points on fluid IQ scores for each hour of shorter sleep duration. Attention measures did not correlate with cognitive or sleep variables. Daytime sleepiness as a potential moderator of the relationship between sleep duration and cognitive performance was not related to cognitive or sleep variables. We conclude that children with higher daytime cognitive efficiency (reflected by higher intelligence scores) show increased nighttime efficiency (reflected by shorter sleep duration). In the light of the neural efficiency hypothesis, the current results argue for an extension of the original theory—referring not only to daytime but also to nighttime behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)