A Comparison of Interscorer Agreement for the Comprehension,Similarities,and Vocabulary Subtests of the WISC and WISC-R

Abstract

Thirty-one PhD Clinical Psychologists (Division 12 members of APA) selected from the 1974 American Psychological Association Register of members scored Comprehension, Similarities and Vocabulary subtest items common to the WISC and WISC-R. Twenty-two examiners used WISC criteria and nine examiners used WISC-R criteria. Although percentages of interscorer agreement favored the WISC-R judges, the Wilcoxon's T Statistic for Matched-Pairs Signed-Ranks Test showed no significant statistical support for this trend. However, significant correlations were established indicating that there was an increase of interrater scoring agreement with a corresponding increase of agreement that the responses were determined to be sufficiently inquired for scoring. This suggests that the scoring of these subtests may be less subjective than previously reported.