On the Use of the WISC—R Supplementary Subtests as Alternates

Abstract

If a regularly administered WISC—R subtest cannot be administered properly or is invalidated, the manual suggests that a supplementary subtest, either Digit Span or Mazes, can serve as a substitute, but perhaps prorating the sum of scaled scores on the remaining subtests would be better. Data from the WISC—R standardization sample were analyzed to investigate the psychometric properties of these two variants of the standard procedure. Proration consistently resulted in higher validities (i.e., correlations between scores on the variant Verbal, Performance, or Full Scale and scores on the corresponding original scale), whereas substitution almost as consistently resulted in higher reliabilities, but in both cases the differences were small. Examiners may decide for themselves whether or not to use the supplementary subtests as alternates.