What Does the WRAML2 Core Battery Measure? Utilizing Exploratory and Confirmatory Techniques to Disclose Higher Order Structure

Abstract

The present study examined the factor structure of the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning–Second Edition (WRAML2) core battery with participants from the normative sample aged 9 to 90 years (n = 880) using higher order exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic techniques that were not reported in the in the WRAML2 Administration and Technical Manual. Exploratory factor analysis results suggested only one factor, whereas confirmatory factor analysis results favored the three factors posited by the test authors. Although model fit statistics were equivalent for the oblique, indirect hierarchical, and direct hierarchical measurement models, it was determined that the bifactor model best disclosed the influence of latent dimensions on WRAML2 manifest variables. In the three-factor bifactor model, the general factor accounted for 31% of the total variance and 69% of the common variance, whereas the three first-order factors combined accounted for 41% of the total variance and 31% of the common variance. Latent factor reliability coefficients (as estimated by ω_h) indicated that only the general factor was measured with enough precision to warrant confident clinical interpretation. Implications for clinical interpretation of WRAML2 scores and the procedures utilized in the development of related measures are discussed.