WAIS-R item difficulties with psychiatric inpatients

Abstract

Item difficulties for 10 WAIS-R subtests were determined for a sample of psychiatric inpatients ( N = 150). Spearman correlation coefficients between psychiatric inpatient and standardization group rank orders were large and significant across all subtests except Object Assembly, which demonstrates the expected trend of increasing item difficulty for the psychiatric inpatient sample. Using linear regression, items with standardized residuals greater than two were judged to be significantly out of order for the psychiatric inpatient sample. Of the 165 WAIS-R items examined in this study, only 7 were found to be out of order. This result may have been due to chance and suggests that, in general, WAIS-R subtest item difficulty curves for psychiatric inpatients and the WAIS-R standardization group are comparable.

Order of Item Difficulty on Picture Arrangement: Extending the Discussion to the Wais—III

“…They hypothesized that some of the items of the Picture Arrangement subtest did not conform to the expected order of difficulty when data from individuals with acquired brain injury were examined. Their findings were fairly consistent with those based on samples of chical patients (2), elderly subjects (8), and psychiatric inpatients (1). The relative difficulty of the second item of the subtest led Heath and Leathem to caution chicians about the interpretation of intrasubtest scatter on the Picture Arrangement subtest of patients with brain injury.…”

“…Despite the problems in item placement suggested by these data, it is important to note that statistical procedures were not used to confirm differences between this small clinical sample's performance and that of the normative sample. However, it appears the order of item difficulty for the WAIS-111 Picture Arrangement subtest is more accurate than the inherently flawed WAIS-R subtest (1,2,8).…”

Order of Item Difficulty on Picture Arrangement: Extending the Discussion to the Wais—III

“…They hypothesized that some of the items of the Picture Arrangement subtest did not conform to the expected order of difficulty when data from individuals with acquired brain injury were examined. Their findings were fairly consistent with those based on samples of chical patients (2), elderly subjects (8), and psychiatric inpatients (1). The relative difficulty of the second item of the subtest led Heath and Leathem to caution chicians about the interpretation of intrasubtest scatter on the Picture Arrangement subtest of patients with brain injury.…”

“…Despite the problems in item placement suggested by these data, it is important to note that statistical procedures were not used to confirm differences between this small clinical sample's performance and that of the normative sample. However, it appears the order of item difficulty for the WAIS-111 Picture Arrangement subtest is more accurate than the inherently flawed WAIS-R subtest (1,2,8).…”

Item difficulty scaling for WAIS-III picture arrangement

“…When an item is misplaced, however, item difficulty would be a simpler explanation. Earlier WAIS versions of Picture Arrangement were flawed regarding serial difficulty (Boone & Kaplan, 1993;Broder & Oresick, 1987;Heath & Leathem, 1998;Ryan, Paolo, & Brungardt, 1989) and the subtest was radically altered for the WAIS-III. Ryan and Lopez (1999), the only published account assessing the order of item difficulty for WAIS-III PA items, suggested that the items are not arranged in order of difficulty.…”

Benefits of Order: The Influence of Item Sequencing on Metacognition in Moderate and Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

“…A separate, implicit manipulation that can be made to cognitive tests is the presentation sequence of item difficulty. In neuropsychological assessment, several standardized tests are designed so that item difficulty progresses from least to most difficult to increase efficiency of test administration and provide potential process observations—an example of this is found in the subtests of Wechsler's Intelligence Scales (Boone & Kaplan, 1993; Wechsler, 1981). Although this sequence of progressive difficulty is standard in neuropsychology, it remains unknown whether metacognitive accuracy is affected by this type of task demand variable.…”

Order of Item Difficulty on Picture Arrangement: Extending the Discussion to the Wais—III

“…They hypothesized that some of the items of the Picture Arrangement subtest did not conform to the expected order of difficulty when data from individuals with acquired brain injury were examined. Their findings were fairly consistent with those based on samples of chical patients (2), elderly subjects (8), and psychiatric inpatients (1). The relative difficulty of the second item of the subtest led Heath and Leathem to caution chicians about the interpretation of intrasubtest scatter on the Picture Arrangement subtest of patients with brain injury.…”

“…Despite the problems in item placement suggested by these data, it is important to note that statistical procedures were not used to confirm differences between this small clinical sample's performance and that of the normative sample. However, it appears the order of item difficulty for the WAIS-111 Picture Arrangement subtest is more accurate than the inherently flawed WAIS-R subtest (1,2,8).…”

Item difficulty scaling for WAIS-III picture arrangement

“…When an item is misplaced, however, item difficulty would be a simpler explanation. Earlier WAIS versions of Picture Arrangement were flawed regarding serial difficulty (Boone & Kaplan, 1993;Broder & Oresick, 1987;Heath & Leathem, 1998;Ryan, Paolo, & Brungardt, 1989) and the subtest was radically altered for the WAIS-III. Ryan and Lopez (1999), the only published account assessing the order of item difficulty for WAIS-III PA items, suggested that the items are not arranged in order of difficulty.…”

Benefits of Order: The Influence of Item Sequencing on Metacognition in Moderate and Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

“…A separate, implicit manipulation that can be made to cognitive tests is the presentation sequence of item difficulty. In neuropsychological assessment, several standardized tests are designed so that item difficulty progresses from least to most difficult to increase efficiency of test administration and provide potential process observations—an example of this is found in the subtests of Wechsler's Intelligence Scales (Boone & Kaplan, 1993; Wechsler, 1981). Although this sequence of progressive difficulty is standard in neuropsychology, it remains unknown whether metacognitive accuracy is affected by this type of task demand variable.…”

Order of Item Difficulty on Picture Arrangement: Extending the Discussion to the Wais—III

“…They hypothesized that some of the items of the Picture Arrangement subtest did not conform to the expected order of difficulty when data from individuals with acquired brain injury were examined. Their findings were fairly consistent with those based on samples of chical patients (2), elderly subjects (8), and psychiatric inpatients (1). The relative difficulty of the second item of the subtest led Heath and Leathem to caution chicians about the interpretation of intrasubtest scatter on the Picture Arrangement subtest of patients with brain injury.…”

“…Despite the problems in item placement suggested by these data, it is important to note that statistical procedures were not used to confirm differences between this small clinical sample's performance and that of the normative sample. However, it appears the order of item difficulty for the WAIS-111 Picture Arrangement subtest is more accurate than the inherently flawed WAIS-R subtest (1,2,8).…”

Item difficulty scaling for WAIS-III picture arrangement

“…When an item is misplaced, however, item difficulty would be a simpler explanation. Earlier WAIS versions of Picture Arrangement were flawed regarding serial difficulty (Boone & Kaplan, 1993;Broder & Oresick, 1987;Heath & Leathem, 1998;Ryan, Paolo, & Brungardt, 1989) and the subtest was radically altered for the WAIS-III. Ryan and Lopez (1999), the only published account assessing the order of item difficulty for WAIS-III PA items, suggested that the items are not arranged in order of difficulty.…”

Benefits of Order: The Influence of Item Sequencing on Metacognition in Moderate and Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

“…A separate, implicit manipulation that can be made to cognitive tests is the presentation sequence of item difficulty. In neuropsychological assessment, several standardized tests are designed so that item difficulty progresses from least to most difficult to increase efficiency of test administration and provide potential process observations—an example of this is found in the subtests of Wechsler's Intelligence Scales (Boone & Kaplan, 1993; Wechsler, 1981). Although this sequence of progressive difficulty is standard in neuropsychology, it remains unknown whether metacognitive accuracy is affected by this type of task demand variable.…”