Actuarial detection and description of brain impairment with the W-B form I

In conjunction with other psychological tests, actuarial prediction studies have used the adult Wechsler scales to detect and describe the nature of brain impairment. However, the classification base rates from the independent use of the adult Wechsler scales have not been determined empirically. This investigation addressed this problem by assessing the ability of these scales to identify the presence, chronicity, extent, and lateralization of brain impairment through four cross-validated discriminant functions (N = 150). Hit rates from the function that differentiated nonpsychotic nonimpaired from brain-impaired Ss equalled 79%, while hit rates that equalled 75% were obtained from a function that compared right- from left-hemisphere lesioned Ss. Hit rates equalled 50% for the two functions that made acute vs. chronic and lateralized vs. diffusely impaired comparisons, respectively. In addition to cross-validating them on larger samples, it was recommended that the clinical utility of the functions be determined though a clinical-actuarial prediction paradigm.