Order of item difficulty on picture arrangement: extending the discussion to the WAIS-III

Past examinations of the order of item difficulty on the 10-item WAIS-R Picture Arrangement subtest indicated that the items had not been arranged in increasing order of difficulty. Examination of the clinical data for 50 consecutive assessment referrals [means for age, education, Full Scale IQ, and Picture Arrangement subtest scaled score were 46.4 (SD = 10.2), 12.6 (SD = 1.1), 96.7 (SD = 12.6), and 10.6 (SD = 3.3), respectively] on the 11-item WAIS-III subtest suggested that the current order of items may not be in order of increasing difficulty. Clinical relevance of these findings and research on the order of item difficulty are discussed.