Wechsler’s Adult Intelligence Scale

- David Wechsler

Aim: To assess the intelligence of the participant using the Wechsler’s Adult Intelligence
Scale

Introduction

Definition

“Intelligence is the ability to solve problems, or to create products, that are valued within one
or more cultural settings.” H. Gardner

“Intelligence, considered as a mental trait, is the capacity to make impulses focal at their
early, unfinished stage of formation. Intelligence is therefore the capacity for abstraction,
which is an inhibitory process.” L. L. Thurstone

“A global concept that involves an individual’s ability to act purposefully, think rationally,
and deal effectively with the environment.” D. Wechsler

IQ range given by Wechsler

IQ Range IQ Classification
130 and above Very Superior
120 – 130 Superior
110 – 120 High Average
90 – 110 Average
80 – 90 Below Average
70 -80 Borderline
70 and below Extremely low

Theories of Intelligence

1. Spearman’s Two Factor Theory

Spearman proposed two factor theory of intelligence in n1904. This theory is based on factor
analysis which is used to examine relationships between people’s scores on different tests or
subtests of intelligence. He concluded that people who do well on some intelligence test do
well on others. Similarly, if people do poorly on an intelligence test, they also tend to do
poorly on other intellectual tests. This led him to believe that there are one or more factors
that are common to all intellectual tests.

On the basis of his research, he promotes that each individual activity involves a general
factor ‘g’ which it shares with all intellectual activities. Apart from ‘g’, it also shares a
specific factor ‘s’ which belongs to a specific ability of that individual to deal with specific
problems. (e.g. vocabulary, mathematics, spatial abilities).

‘g’ belongs to the general intelligence which is a common thread that run through all the tasks
that the individual performs through the course of his life. The quantity of this ‘g’ depends on
the amount of cerebral cortex energy present and the maximum quantum of this is
predetermined. To what extent an individual uses this energy depends on the environment,
upbringing, education, friend-circle, motivation, etc. that it reacts when subjected to.

Apart from this general factor ‘g’, an individual may have a specific ability to deal with a
particular situation/problem. This specific ability can be given as s1, s2, s3 etc.

The total ability or intelligence 'A' of an individual, thus, can be expressed by the following
equation: g + s1 + s2 + s3 + ... = A.

2. Sternberg’s Information Processing Theory of Intelligence

Information processing is the way in which an individual decides to go about performing a

mental task or solving a problem. From the time an individual encounters a problem, he starts
gathering information to find ways to complete the task or solve the problem.

Sternberg propagated the following steps which he felt an individual uses while processing
information.

 Encoding (identifying the relevant available information in the mind)

 Inferring (drawing the necessary inference)
 Mapping (establishing the relationship between a previous situation and the present
one)
 Application (applying the inferred relationship)
 Justification (justifying the analysed solution of the problem)
 Response (providing the best possible solution)

Methodology

Demographic details and Case History

Name – A.Y

Age - 22
Sex - Female

Religion - Hindu

Marital status - Unmarried

Educational Qualification – Graduate

Occupation – Student

Family Type - Nuclear Family

Mother tongue - Hindi

Languages Known - Hindi, English, Marathi

Geographical Location - Mumbai

Socioeconomic status - Middle class

Date of Testing – 7th December 2022

Informant – Absent

Information – The information provided by the participant was reliable and adequate.

Chief Complaints

I feel very stressed about my assignments and its deadlines. I often remain absent in
class and miss out on a lot of things because I worry a lot and I am not ready to face it. I am
also away from home so sometimes I feel lonely and homesick.

History of Present Illness (HOPI)

Precipitating factor. Since few months the subject is noticing her stress levels being
high due to the submission of various assignments.

Progress the subject has a fluctuating mood while she is stressed which affects her
mentally a lot.
 History of present illness she is unable to manage stress levels and often misses her
classes and prefers to be alone

Associated disturbances. She has trouble sleeping and is also unable to concentrate
on activities. She also mentioned that she prefers being around her friends but due to the
deadlines of assignments shes unable to spend with them as well.

Treatment she never took any kind of treatment

Negative history the client showed no symptoms of any disturbances in their social
environment that would say that the client is facing any kind of disorder.

Treatment History she never underwent any treatment

Past Medical and Surgical History the subject does not report of any surgical history.

Family History. The subject reported that her parents share a good relationship with
themselves and with her, currently. Since shes the only child she’s loved a lot by family. Her
family is economically sound. She also shares a good and healthy relationship with her other
family members.

Personal History

The subject was born via vaginal delivery. Her mother was never diagnosed or
consumed any kind of substance pre and post delivery period. There were no childhood
problems that were detected and milestone development was on time. The subject also had
good and healthy relation with her parents during her childhood and adolescent period.

Scholastic and Extracurricular activities

The subject began their schooling year from the age of 4. There no was no history for
of any separation anxiety. The highest grade achieved by the subject was 70%. The subject
had good peer relations during the school and college years. The subject has no history of
conduct, academic or intellectual disabilities. There was no shift in schools.

Menstrual History
 The subject began her first menstrual cycle at the 13. She gets her periods monthly
and has 28-day cycle maintained but sometimes has a delay in her monthly cycle. She doesn’t
have any emotional disturbances during cycle. Her flow is regular and appropriate and not
too heavy. She has backache and body ache during her cycle.

Sexual History

The subject attained her puberty at the age of 12. The source and extent of
knowledge about sex or any exposure was through internet, friends and there was no
exposure

Marital History

Since the subject is not married, she has no marital history

Premorbid Personality

Attitudes to others in social, family, and sexual relationships. The patient reported
that they have a very good and supportive environment at home and they have a good
bonding with their friends and other social members in the society.

Attitudes to self. She been facing stress issues that is affecting her mentally and she
worries a lot about things. She also is unable to concentrate on tasks. Physically she feels
very drained when she faces stress issues.

Moral and religious attitudes and standards. Has faith in God and visits temple
whenever possible.

Mood. Gets a bit moody when their tasks are not done on time. Sometime they are
able to handle their mood and emotions and sometimes finds it difficult to carry herself
properly so prefers to be quiet.

Leisure activities and interests. Loves to play basketball, dancing, singing, drawing
and painting. She is also a national level player in basketball
 Mental Status Examination

General Appearance and Behaviour

The subject was well groomed and dressed appropriately according to the setting of the
surrounding. Her hair and nails were adequate. She was aware of the setting of the place
where the test was conducted. Eye contact was initiated and maintained. Her psychomotor
skills were normal. She was cooperative and rapport was established

Speech

The subject’s speech was relevant and coherent to the questions that were asked. She
was very goal directed. She was able to comprehend the questions well and answer
spontaneously. Her reaction time for each question was normal. Her speed of the information
was normal and relevant.

Mood and Affect

The subject was subjectively feeling okay and focused. While objectively, she
appeared to be happy and energetic. Her facial expressions and body language were
congruent to the answers that she provided. She was also maintaining a proper eye contact

Thought

The flow of thought was congruent. The thought processes of the subject were
adequate. There was flow of ideas and emotions. The content was very useful and
understanding. She was able to comprehend everything that is asked to her

Cognitive functioning

Orientation. The subject was able to tell the time, day, date and year. She was aware
of the setting that she was giving her test. She was also aware about the relations around her.
 Attention and Concentration. The subject was able to repeat the numbers forward
and backwards she made a few errors. She was also able to tell the days of the week without
any error. She was able to tell the spellings correctly without any error or hesitation.

Memory –

Recent memory. The subject was able to tell what she had in her breakfast in the
morning. She was also able to answer the question What time did you leave your house to
reach here? How much did it take? How did you reach here (mode of transport)?

Remote memory. The subject was able to tell her birth place. She knows her contact
number as well she recalls her parents number as well. She also knows the school she
attended.

Immediate memory. The subject was able to count the numbers forward but unable to
count the numbers backward

Judgement -

Personal. The client realises that she is stresses due to the assignment deadlines and
back-to-back submissions and is also working on relaxation techniques.

Insight

The client has level 5 insight level as the client is aware about his problems but is
unable to work on it.

Materials required

- WAIS Booklet
- WAIS Manual
- Stationary

Procedure

- Material was kept ready before the participant was invited.

- Rapport was established and the participant was made comfortable

- Case history was taken and consent was obtained.

 - The participant was introduced and instructions for each test were given

- The participant was given time to answer each test

- Retrospective report was obtained from the participant

- The participant was thanked and escorted out of the room

Description of the test

The Wechsler Scales have proved to be the best available individual measure for the

measurement of intelligence in adults since they were first published in 1939. Moreover these

experiments have been successfully adapted in other countries such as Germany, Spain and

Japan, to name just a handful. The tests presented here are an attempt to apply the Wechsler

Adult Intelligence Scale to Indian situations and establish standards or norms for the

population of India.

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales are composed of eleven sub-tests which are;

Information, comprehension, arithmetic, similarity, digit span, vocabulary, digit symbol,

completion of picture, block design, Picture arrangement and assembly of object. The first six

of these are verbal scales, and the last five are performance scales, out of these.

Reliability

The Wechsler Adult Intelligence is a well-established scale and it has fairly high consistency.

Over a two to twelve week time period, the test-retest reliabilities ranged from 0.70 (7

subscales) to 0.90 (2 subscales). Inter-scorer coefficients were very high, all being above

0.90.

Precautions
 - Materials that were required were arranged beforehand

- The room chosen was ventilated and kept free from distraction

- The room was well lit

- Consent was taken before conduction

- The instructions was given

- It was ensured that the participant understood the instructions and all doubts were

cleared prior to conduction

- The retrospective report was taken from the participant

- The observations were written down

- Scoring was done carefully for all items.

Observations

The participant seemed to be calm during the conduction. She asked if she had any doubts

and made sure she understood the test items well. The participant seemed to have gotten tired

by the half of the test based on her lazy body posture and eyes getting drowsy.

Retrospective report

“It was an interesting test but it was a considerate amount of tasks so I felt tired and sleepy

after a while.”

Scoring and Interpretation

Scale Raw Score Sum of PRI Percentile rank 90% 95%
Scaled
score

Block Design 24

Matrix Reason 13

Visual processing 3
15 70 2 66-77 65-78
 Scale Raw Score Sum of VCI Percentile rank 90% 95%
Scaled
score

Information 7

Similarities 18

Vocabulary 16
19 80 9 76-86 75-86

Scale Raw Score Sum of WMI Percentile rank 90% 95%

Scaled
score

Digit Span 24

Arithmetic 7

10 71 3 67-78 66-79

Scale Raw Score Scaled PSI Percentile rank 90% 95%

score

Symbol search 27

Coding 71
18 94 34 88-102 86-103

Discussion
Perceptual Reasoning

The scaled score as per the raw score is 15 for the three domains that come under

Perceptual Reasoning which are Block Design, Matrix Reasoning and Visual Puzzles. This

indicates that the client comes under the “Borderline” category which states that the client

might face difficulties to analyse and interpret the abstract mental images but might be able to

complete it with the help of some cues or some extra time.

Verbal Comprehension

The scaled score as per the raw score is 19 for the three domains that come under

Verbal Comprehension which are Similarities, vocabulary and information. This indicates

that the client comes under the “Below Average” category which states that the client might

have a problem while communicating and analysing aspects related to language and

expression of the same. They might be able to fulfil the task in certain environments but it

will take them more than average time to do so.

Working Memory

The scaled score as per the raw score is 19 for the two domains that come under

Working Memory which are digit span and arithmetic. This indicates that the client comes

under the “Borderline” category which states that the client might have a difficulty while

dealing with aspects that involves numbers. Although since they were able to solve enough to

know that they know the basics but they might show a lack of ability while solving average

and high-level number related aspects.

Processing Scale Index Scale

 The scaled score as per the raw score is 18 for the two domains that come under the

Processing Scale Index which are symbol search and coding. This indicates that the client

comes under the “Average” category which states that the client has a good ability when it

comes to information processing and visual perception. It also shows that the client has good

speed and processing ability.

Conclusion

Considering the Mental Status Examination, Case History and interpretation of the

assessment it can be stated that the client has Borderline Intelligence level which indicates

that they might have difficulties in areas of abstract reasoning, memory, mathematics and

communication. Since the client is stated to be borderline in individual aspects such as

working memory, reasoning and working memory, they might find it tough to tackle

situations related to these domains. Although they seemed to be scoring well in the domain of

processing scale which means that they do still have the ability to do tasks with speed and

accuracy while processing more than one aspect at a time.

Intervention

According to all the information obtained from the above assessment and details, the client

could use help with working on the above-mentioned abilities so that they can cope up with

the concerns that are following the difficulties. Hence, Token Economy would be of great

help to the client. Within an educational setting, a token economy is a system for providing

positive reinforcement to an individual by giving them tokens for completing tasks or

behaving in desired ways. Token economies are used as a method of strengthening a

behaviour, or increasing its frequency, because the tokens are a way of “paying” individual

for completing tasks and the children can then use these tokens to buy desired activities or
items. Since they did mention feeling lazy and lethargic, so therefore giving them motivation

in the form of reinforcement could help them work harder towards themselves.

References

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale | Fourth Edition. (n.d.).

[Link]

Assessments/Cognition-&-Neuro/Wechsler-Adult-Intelligence-Scale-|-Fourth-

Edition/p/[Link]

How Does the Weschsler Adult Intelligence Scale Measure Intelligence?

Verywell Mind. [Link]

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 Appendix

Consent form

I _______, student from ______ am conducting a psychological test on D.L. Your

participation has solicited yet it is strictly voluntary. Please be aware that you are free to

withdraw at any point throughout the duration of the experiment/test.

Your result will be kept confidential and not disclosed to anyone without your permission or

your name will not be associated with any test findings.

Your participation in this study will require approximately __ minutes. You are solely

responsible for not attending any classes during this period. Please, indicate with your

signature that you understand your rights and agree to this participate in this experiment.

By my signature below, I acknowledge that I consent to a psychological test/experiment

conducted by Stuti Gaikwad. I have been informed of the study and have read the consent

form.

I fully understand my rights and obligations as a participant and I freely agree to this

assessment/test.

Signature of the Subject

 Date:

Name of the student (from psychology) conducting this session: