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Archives of Assessment Psychology

Abstract

The Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) is one of the most commonly used psychological measures in clinical practice and research. The newly revised fourth edition (WMS-IV) has recently been published, and introduced a novel substitution rule in which scores from the California Verbal Learning Test, Second Edition (CVLTII) may replace WMS-IV subtest scores for Verbal Paired Associates (VPA) I and II subtests for the ease of administration. Yet, the validity of this substitution remains unclear. The purpose of the paper was to determine if the replacement of CVLT-II scores for WMS-IV scores affects WMS-IV index scores, thus affecting subsequent analyses and diagnostic decision making, within a mixed clinical and nonclinical population. Correlations between the measures and paired t-tests were conducted between the WMSIV Index Scores with and without the CVLT-II substitution. Results indicated that performance on the Delayed Memory Index (DMI) was indicated to be significantly better when scored using WMS-IV VPA II relative to CVLT-II Long Delay Free Recall. This is theorized to be attributed to the cued-recall paradigm underlying VPA administration, and mandated visual interference tasks on the WMS-IV. The authors suggest that caution should be taken when implementing this score substitution.

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