psychological testing &

measurement

Faiza Safdar
Lecturer
WECHSLER MEMORY
SCALE
David Wechsler 1945
• Is the result of some 10 years
intermittent experimentation directed
toward a rapid, simple, and practical
memory examination.

• such a scale is needed is evidenced by

the frequent occasions on which
psychologists working in mental
hospitals are asked to appraise a
patient’ memory particularly ac it is
related to rest of the functioning.
• The only instrument at that time available for for
clinical purpose was Well's mental tests in clinical
practice
• But:
- This examination however had only a limited
standardization & for other reasons is not quit
suitable.
- Among these reasons are its extensive length
- Unavailability of some of the material used
- Restricted population on which it was standardized
• However, Well’ s was the first one to introduce the
term memory quotient in a sense analogous to that of
the
• Advantages of WMS
 Takes 15 minutes to administer
 Relatively satisfactory standardization
 Allowance for memory variations is
made
 MQ obtained is directly comparable
with IQ.
 WMS is reported to be sensitive, to the
temporary intellectual impairment
associated with ECT, considering its
brevity and ease. It is also enjoyable to
take.
• The present scale consists of seven
subtests.
• 1. Personal and current
information.
- Comprised of six simple questions.
- This test discriminates very little or
not at all between normal or even
near normal subjects.
- It was included in the test because
of its usefulness with special defects
like aphasics and seniles.
• 2. Orientation
- Five questions
- It discriminate little like the
first and included for the same
reason as of test 1.
- It is designed to test ind’s
immediate orientation.
 3. Mental Control
• 1. Consists of three sub-items.
• a. Counting backwards from 20 to
• b. Repeating the alphabet
• c. Counting by 3’s
• 2. It measures simple conceptual
tracking.
• Its value is important in cases of organic
brain disease that are not too far gone but
show defects which would not be made
evident by simple rote memory items.
3. Logical Memory
• Consists of two memory passages
• Score consists of average of the
number of ideas, which he produces on
both passages.
• Test measures immediate recall of
logical material or verbal ideas. It
involves perceiving through hearing
and recall
• Severe depression may also affect
performance on tests of immediate
memory and retention
• In normal subjects in logical memory
tests, the delayed recall was 1-2 points
less than the immediate recall.
• Logical memory has been found
influenced by age gradient as
follows:

• No decline between 18 - 30
• Slight decline “ ” 30 - 50
• Some decline “ ” 50 - 60
• Sharp decline “ ” 60 - 70
• Men outscored women in a study
(verhoff, a. e., Kaplan, e., Albert, M. I.,
1979 as cited in Mehmood, 1989).
• In a study of patients who had
undergone surgical dissection of
temporal lobe, this test did not
discriminate between the right and left
hemisphere groups in immediate recall.
• On a 30 minutes recall however,
patients with left side lesions recalled
significantly fewer story elements as
compared to their counterparts.
• Newcomb and Steinberg (1964) found
differences in psychotics and organics on
delayed recalls.
Days Psychotics Organics
1 Recall was Improved in
slow and one day
impaired
3, 7, 15, 28 Gradual No
increase in improvemen
recall t in organics
after all day
 In a factor analysis of WMS, the logical
memory correlated highly with
associate learning and the test of
immediate recall of designs (visual
reproduction).
 This indicates some relationship
between logical memory, of complex
unfamiliar information and associative
learning.
5. Memory span for digit forward
and backward
 Digits involves 8 and 7 respectively
 It compares two different tests, digit
forward and digit backwards which
involve different mental activities
and are affected differently by brain
damage, both involving auditory
attention.
• Digit Forward:
• It tests subject’s attitude to simple
tasks.
• Generally score on DF is higher than
DB.
• If score on both are low, it is normal
and only indicates less attention.
• One point difference between DF
and DB is normal
DF DB Differenc Category
e
6 5 1 Normal
7 4 3 Borderline
8 3 5 Brain
damage
9 2 7 Severe
brain
damage
(rare)
• Third trial of same sequence is
given in one of the two
circumstances.
• 1.when the patient’s failure on at
least one of the two trials appear to
be due to distraction, non-co
operation or inattentiveness.
• 1. When the patient recalls more
digits backwards than forward.
Assuming that the patient is capable
of doing simpler task than DB.
•
Things that may affect performance
 Preoccupying worries, depression
and obsessional thinking
 High anxiety, stress reduces the
score on DF.
 Early 70’s less decline in DF and late
70’s sharp decline was observed
 After one year of head injury and
psychosurgery, the performance on
DF was improved
• Digit Backward:
 It measures mental double tracking a more complex mental
task.
 Decline in DB in late 70’s is about 1.7.
 DF and DB discrepancy increases in brain damages,
 In a study it was found that the patients with right
hemisphere damage performed poorly on digit backwards
because their visual field is defected.
 If the patient having low DB and visual field defect then the
person has little chance of recovery after trauma.
 Bender (1979) found that the ability to reverse digits or
words, latent sequence of the characteristic of the normal
cognitive functioning and language process. Especially, it
indicates the normal functioning of the temporal lobe.

• 6. Visual reproduction:

 Involves individual to draw simple

figures from memory after 10 seconds
exposure.
 2 figures are taken from the army
performance scale & 3rd I from binet
design
 The test measures figural memory.
 No sex differences found in some
studies and a one point less score of
women was found in an Australian
study than men.
On immediate recall this test does
not discriminate between patients
with right and left sided lesions.
Lateralized differences do show
up in recall after 30 minutes delay
as patients with right temporal
lesion score significantly less than
those with left temporal lesion or
normal controls.
•
• 6. Associate Learning:
• a. Consists of 10 paired associates
• b. Some easy some hard
• c. Required to learn in three trials
• d. Measures verbal retention
• e. It is sensitive to learning (i.e.
secondary memory) deficits
involving complex or normal
information.
 f. Verhof and her colleagues pointed out
that the score reflects not simply what is
learned but errors of commission resulting
from pathological response tendencies such
as preservation and confabulation.
g. The juxtaposition of hard and easy pairs
in one test has the practical results of testing
to different activities (i.e. recall of well
learned verbal associations and retention of
new unfamiliar verbal material).
h. A fourth trial on the standard
administration is sometimes needed, to find
out whether true learning of new
associations has taken place or person has
merely learned phonetics associations
• Factor interpretation
• Kear Colwell (1973) recommended
that factor scores might be utilized for
the interpretation of the test. Based on
stepwise multiple regression he
provided the formula to convert sub
test scores to factor scores.
• Formula no 1: Immediate learning
and Recall.
• -0.27+ (0.25 x Logical memory) +
(0.19 x visual reproduction) + ( 0.21 x
Associate learning).
•
• Formula no 2: Attention and
concentration
• -1.8 + (0.28 x information) + ( -0.34
x orientation) + (0.43 x mental
control) + 0.45 x digit span).
•
• Formula No 3: Long term recall
• -9.68 + (0.78 x information) + (20.4
x orientation).
•
WMS in its present form has
been used since 1940.
Norms are based on
approximately 200 normal
subjects, ages, 25-50 including
men and women.
Means and standard deviation
were obtained for each 5 yr or
10 yr interval (ages 25-50).
 WMS Form II

• To appraise the change that

takes place during or
immediately after ECT or any
course of treatment, two
comparable test forms are
needed. Directions for these
forms are identical.
The relationship of the first and the
second form
• Administer form II after 1 to 16 days (mean
4 days).
• Both forms were administered on nurses and
psychoneurotic and psychotic patients (with
ECT) having above average intelligence.
According to authors it affords suitable basis
for estimating comparable changes in total
score, due to repetition of the test.
• Secondly, both forms were administered to
60 college students and means of the total
score along with the critical ratios of
difference between successive total scores
are provided in table 1.
ADMINISTRATION
scoring
 Memory Quotient can be obtained:
i. Sum subject’s partial subtest
scores.
ii. To this total add age
constant given in table 2
iii. Look for MQ in table 3
against that score. This MQ is age
corrected.
• iv. Example A subject, age 42, raw
score = 40, age corrected score =
104, MQ = 110.
• Y = X + Ca
• Where X = subject’s original
raw score on WMS.
• Y = adjusted or corrected score
• Ca = age constant