Age, Ability Level, and Method of Administering and Scoring the WAIS

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Abstract
Scoring of the WAIS performance measures of intelligence have been criticized as penalizing older adults because of scoring procedures which involve speed of response. Timed and untimed scoring methods were employed with five WAIS subtests (Arithmetic, Picture Completion, Block Design, Picture Arrangement, and Object Assembly) administered to 40 young (aged 20 to 30) and 40 old (aged 65 to 76) subjects matched for verbal intelligence. Elimination of bonuses for rapid performance differentially improved the scores of older subjects but did not raise those scores to levels achieved by the young. Allowing subjects to work beyond the standard cutoff times typically employed with each item of the various subtests was beneficial to the old, but statistically significantly so only with respect to the picture arrangement subtest. Untimed scoring procedures were not of special benefit to the old of high ability. Most of the few subjects who were able to improve their scores on arithmetic or block design, when allowed to attempt items beyond the standard subtest termination criteria, were from the elderly sample.

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