Latent Semantic Structure of the WMS-III Verbal Paired-Associates

Abstract

Objective To investigate the factor structure of the verbal paired-associates (VPA) subtest in the WMS-III using a theoretically driven model of semantic processing previously found to be well-fitting for the WMS-IV version of the test. Method Archival data were used from 267 heterogeneous neurosciences patients and 223 seizure disorder patients who completed the WMS-III as part of a standard neuropsychological evaluation. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test theoretically driven models for VPA based on principles of semantic processing. Four nested models of different complexities were examined and compared for goodness-of-fit using chi-squared difference testing. Measurement invariance testing was conducted across heterogeneous neuroscience and seizure disorder samples to test generality of the factor model. Results After removing items with limited variability (very easy or very hard; 12 of 40 items), a four-factor model was found to be best-fitting in the present patient samples. The four factors were “recreational”, “functional”, “material”, and “symbolic”, each representing semantic knowledge associated with the function of the target word referent. This model subsequently met the criteria for the strict measurement invariance, showing good overall fit when factor loadings, thresholds, and residuals were held to equality across samples. Conclusions The results of this study provide further evidence that “arbitrary” associations between word pairs in VPA items have an underlying semantic structure, challenging the idea that unrelated hard-pairs are semantic-free. These results suggest that a semantic-structure model may be implemented as an alternative scoring in future editions of the WMS to facilitate interpretation.

Epilepsy and neuropsychology.

“…Similar results were observed in a larger heterogeneous patient group as well as in a smaller series of left and right TLE patients. This analysis of semantic structure of VPA has been replicated for the WMS-III (Furey et al, 2021). Thus, the principles of cognitive function described by the CHC model can be integrated with findings from cognitive neuroscience and used to predict performance on individual tests items.…”

“…Thus, the principles of cognitive function described by the CHC model can be integrated with findings from cognitive neuroscience and used to predict performance on individual tests items. The major implication for clinical assessment is that hard pairs in Wechsler VPA are not a distinct arbitrary association test but, rather, another long-term retrieval test with inevitable semantic recall structure that is best combined with other memory tests with more obvious semantic content to obtain a more reliable measure of long-term memory and learning (Gl in the CHC taxonomy; Furey et al, 2020Furey et al, , 2021.…”