This article briefly reviews the history of intellectual assessment of children and youth in the United States of America, as well as current practices and future directions. Although administration of intelligence tests in the schools has been a longstanding practice in the United States, their use has also elicited sharp controversy over time.…

Validation research for educational achievement tests is often limited to an examination of intended test score interpretations. This article calls for an expansion of validation research in three dimensions. First, validation must attend to actual test use and its consequences, not just score meaning. Second, validation must attend to unintended…

Previously, fine motor skills have been of little or no interest to giftedness research. New lines of thought have been advanced that imply that fine motor skills can be of significance in the identification of gifted persons as well as gifted underachievers. This would also have consequences for the diagnostic process underlying identification.…

Background: Evidence suggests that, as a group, patients with schizophrenia have intellectual deficits that may precede the manifestation of psychotic symptoms; however, how successfully intelligence tests are able to discriminate schizophrenia from other psychotic disorders has yet to be investigated in detail. Methods: Using Wechsler Adult…

Paper discusses advantages and disadvantages of using the Leiter International Performance Scale with autistic children and presents the results of a study comparing the performance of 18 autistic children on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised and the Leiter. Results showed a high positive correlation between the WISC-R…

The study examined the WISC-R (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised) profiles of 26 intellectually gifted students with respect to idiographic and normative variability in performance between scales and among subtests. Results indicated (even among highly homogeneous ability groups) significant variability in performance, reflecting…

A. S. Kaufman (1994) recommended that clinicians substitute Symbol Search, a new subtest, for the Coding subtest when calculating Performance and Full Scale IQs on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III. Tables are provided for accurate derivation of IQs, percentile ranks, and confidence intervals when this substitution is made. (SLD)

Intelligence Quotient scores are only predictors of performance, not precise measures of intelligence. They are most useful in conjunction with other assessments of potential such as achievement tests and daily performance. An explanation of how scores are derived and a brief history of IQ testing are included. (IAH)

Argues that despite limitations and abuse, IQ tests should play significant role in programs for gifted students. Substance of the Lippmann Terman debates of the 1920s is examined, followed by acknowledgment of major limitations of IQ tests and discussion of rationales for special programs for the gifted. Argument is made for use of IQ tests in an…

For mildly and moderately mentally retarded individuals, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised measures at about the same level as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, and, consequently, it also produces much higher IQs than the Wechsler children's scales or the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, Form L-M, despite high intertest…

The retest stability of four Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) short forms (Kaufman, Ishikuma, and Kaufman-Packer; Reynolds, Wilson and Clark; Silverstein; Ward) was investigated with 61 subjects aged 75 to 87 years. Short form stability in each instance was comparable to that of the standard WAIS-R. (SLD)

Five short forms of the revised edition of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised were compared for use with an inpatient population. Results with 110 psychiatric inpatients are discussed in terms of trade-offs among administration time, accuracy of IQ estimation, and the clinical value of obtaining scores from the full test. (SLD)

Tracing the development of the Otis test series, the author argues that there will be a continuing demand for group-administered general mental ability tests in education. He foresees a need for better ways of relating ability test scores with skills and achievements to make them more educationally useful. (Author/JAZ)

This article offers advice on interpreting intelligence quotient (IQ) data and other results from intelligence tests. Myths regarding the practical applications and broader implications of IQ profiles are debunked. Several warnings are given regarding test use along with general statements of intelligence tests' strengths and weaknesses in…

Interviewed 90 elementary school teachers on how they used the results of group IQ tests. Data indicated 30 percent of teachers reported making "little or no use" of the test scores. However, 84 percent of teachers stated that they used the test scores for one or more purposes. Discusses four most frequently mentioned uses. (Author/RC)