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Does high scatter affect the predictive validity of WAIS-III IQs?
Joseph J Ryan1, David S Kreiner, D Bradley Burton
1Department of Psychology, Central Missouri State University, Warrensburg, Missouri 64093, USA.
Abstract:
We tested the assumption that high amounts of intersubtest scatter on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III) subtest profiles compromise predictive validity of the IQs for predicting Wechsler Memory Scale-Third Edition (WMS-III) indexes. Data from a sample of 80 male Veteran's Administration medical center patients were analyzed, half with high intersubtest scatter and half with low scatter. The 2 groups were matched on Full Scale IQ. Correlations of WAIS-III Full Scale IQ with WMS-III indexes were not significantly different between the 2 groups. Further, the regression equations for predicting WMS-III indexes did not depend on the amount of scatter. The results suggest that, when differences in IQ are controlled, the validity of WAIS-III scores in predicting memory performance does not depend on the amount of intersubtest scatter. Further research is needed with samples from different populations using a variety of criterion variables.
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