Mayo's older americans normative studies: Utility of corrections for age and education for the WAIS-R

Abstract

Normative data to correct Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-R (WAIS-R) subtest and Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale scores for education obtained from a sample of 526 Caucasians 55 to 97 years of age are presented. This study builds on a prior study which offered normative data to correct for age in the same sample. Regression analyses and examination of normative data tables illustrate the clinical utility of correcting WAIS-R measures for both age and education. The stronger relationship of education with verbal measures of remote memory (i.e., Vocabulary, Information) than with measures of novel visuospatial problem-solving (i.e., Block Design, Object Assembly) suggests that higher intelligence test performance by more educated individuals is at least partially due to greater exposure to information sampled by some intelligence measures. Regression analyses indicate that corrections for sex for the WAIS-R are unnecessary in clinical practice.