Confirmatory factor analysis of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised in a mixed clinical population

Previous exploratory factor analyses (EFA) of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) have yielded highly disparate factor structures, while the few reported confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) of this instrument have been more consistent. The present study employed a CFA approach to identify the factor structure of the WMS-R in a mixed clinical sample of 306 patients, the majority of whom had sustained mild, diffuse brain injury. Consistent with previous CFA studies, the present study found that a three-factor solution (attention/concentration, immediate memory, delayed recall) fit the data significantly better than competing models. The validity of separate verbal and visual memory indices was not supported, perhaps because of the heterogeneity of the sample.