A Factor Analytic Approach to the WAIS–III and WMS–III: Clinical Interpretation of the WAIS–III and WMS–III. D.S. Tulsky, D.H. Saklofske, G.J. Chelune, R.K. Heaton, R.J. Ivnik, R. Bornstein, A. Prifitera, and M.F. Ledbetter (Eds.). 2003. Amsterdam: Academic Press. 618 pp., $75.00.

Extract

This is an edited collection of papers that focuses on various aspects of the most recent revision of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS–III) and Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS–III). The papers in this volume fall into three broad areas. The first section of the book (and part of one of the subsequent chapters) provides an overview of the history of the development of measures of memory and intelligence, with particular emphasis on the Wechsler scales. These chapters are thoroughly delightful, and the only shortcoming is that they are too brief. Indeed, though over 100 pages are devoted to this topic, there are a number of questions about the measures which could have been answered but weren't. (For example, given the cost and time pressures on psychological assessment, why were the tests—particularly the WMS–III—lengthened? Why, for example, include a measure of list learning when Psychological Corporation already published the California Verbal Learning Test? Why, after all these years, hasn't the WAIS Information subtest been dropped or the content made less specific to the United States? What led to the decision to include a verbally mediated measure of visual memory on the WMS–III, a decision which can make it harder to evaluate visual memory in aphasics?) Given how involved they were in the revisions of the WAIS and WMS, the editors would appear to have been uniquely positioned to provide a more in-depth discussion of the issues that arose during this process and how these issues were resolved.