Unilateral brain damage and patterns of age-corrected WAIS subtest scores

Cognitive recovery after severe head injury. 1. Serial testing on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.

“…It conforms, too, with the findings in other forms of organic brain disorder (Morrow and Mark, 1955;Kl0ve and Reitan, 1958;Kl0ve, 1959;Ladd, 1964). However, it should be stressed that this pattern of impairment on the WAIS corresponds to that typically displayed by right hemisphere and/or bilaterally damaged groups (Reitan, 1955;Balthazar et al, 1961;Reed and Reitan, 1963;Simpson and Vega, 1971), despite the apparent preponderance of left hemisphere injured patients (judging by side of hemiparesis) in the present sample. This discrepancy might be explained by the occurrence of bilateral lesions due to the likely presence of contrecoup damage, in line with the recent findings of Eileen Smith (1974) on head-injured patients.…”

Base rates of WAIS-R subtest scatter as a guide for clinical and neuropsychological assessment

“…Depressed individuals "may have difficulty with timed subtests due to psychomotor retardation" (Pernicano, 1986, p. 542); schizophrenics may experience relative difficulty with spatial-performance tasks on the Wechsler scales (Gruzelier & Hammond, 1976); patients with right hemisphere damage may perform better on Information than on Picture Arrangement and Object Assembly, and better on Digit Span than on Digit Symbol and Picture Arrangement (Simpson & Vega, 1971); and individuals with Alzheimertype dementia may perform better on Information/Vocabdary than on Similarities/Digit Span or Digit Symbol/Block Design (Fuld, 1984). However, no inferences about the meaningfulness of hypothesized profile scatter should be made without first demonstrating empirically that the amount of variability in the profiles of abnormal individuals is unusual or atypical.…”

“…Stereotypes about the subtest profiles of adults also have abounded in the literature. Much scatter and/or characteristic profiles have been attributed to adults with brain damage (Black, 1974;Doehring, Reitan, & Kl+ve, 1961;Simpson & Vega, 1971); schizophrenia (Gruzelier & Hammond, 1976); depression (Pernicano, 1986); Alzheimertype dementia (Brinkman & Braun, 1984;Fuld, 1984); and so forth. Yet, data on normal subtest scatter for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) or the WAIS-Revised (WAIS-R) have not been available to provide a normal base rate for comparison to samples of adults with brain lesions, dementia, or psychiatric disorders.…”

Base rates of the wais-r intersubtest scatter and viq-piq discrepancy in normal elderly

“…A considerable number of studies reported in the literature investigated sensitivity of various indices, which are derived from the individuals' performance on Wechsler Intelligence Tests, to brain dysfunction. Specific patterns associated with learning disabilities, mental retardation, brain damage, psychiatric disorders, and Alzheimer's disease have been investigated (Atkinson, 1992; Boone, 1992;Brinkman & Braun, 1984; Campbell & Wilson, 1986; Feinberg & McIlvried, 1991; Mittenberg, Thompson, Schwartz, Ryan, & Levitt, 1991; Pernicano, 1986; Simpson & Vega, 1971; Watkins, Campbell, Reinberg, & Himmell, 1991).…”