Assessing Adolescent and Adult Intelligence.

Kaufman opens this book with the statement that the Weschler scales (Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised and Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised) are uncontested as measures of adolescent and adult intelligence. One might think that after making this kind of statement that there is little left for Kaufman to say; nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Kaufman finds enough to fill 695 pages of text (753 pages when references and indices are included).

Kaufman's review of Lezak's eulogy for the IQ concept is important reading for all consumers of IQ reports. He concisely explains what can and cannot be expected of an intelligence assessment. This is a necessary review before addressing the topic of use of intelligence tests.

The section on validity of the IQ construct is valuable to the Rehabilitation professional in understanding what an IQ score means concerning their clients. There is also specific information regarding the use of intelligence assessment. This is a necessary review before addressing the topic of use of intelligence tests.

The section on validity of the IQ construct is valuable to the Rehabilitation personnel in understanding what an IQ score means concerning their clients. There is also specific information regarding the use intelligence tests with specific disability groups including persons with brain injuries, learning disabilities, mental retardation, and persons suffering from Alzheimer's disease, Psychiatric disorders, and neuropsychiatric disabilities.

The discussion of the norms which form the WAIS-R includes information on certain difficulties that have been encountered with the norms for young adults 16 to 19 years of age. These norms seem to be easier than would be expected resulting in IQs that are about 3 to 5 points higher than expected. Kaufman also indicates that the WAIS-R yields higher IQs than the WISC-R for the ages where they overlap. This is not what would be expected since the WISC-R should have experienced some softening of the norms by comparison to the much newer WAIS-R norms. These two factors indicate that Rehabilitation professionals should be cautioned when using WAIS-R reports on clients ages 16-19 or in making assessments of clients in this age group.

An entire chapter is spent on addressing when a short form is appropriate and, if you have decided to use a short form, which one is best. Strengths and weaknesses of the various short forms are discussed. Also various other instruments that may be used instead of a WAIS-R short form are reviewed. The Slosson is included among those reviewed because of its popularity but is not recommended due to its poor psychometric properties. The Shipley receives a better review than the Slosson but is only recommended for screening groups of near average intelligence.

For those professionals who will be administering intelligence tests and writing reports, there are several chapters devoted to factor analysis of the WAIS-R, V-P IQ discrepancies and the meanings of such discrepancies, profile interpretation, and generating hypotheses.

This book is an absolute must for any psychologist, vocational evaluator, or school psychologist who needs to include as part of their evaluation a measure of intelligence for an adolescent or adult patient, client, or student. For the consumer of these reports, it will add a great deal of depth to your understanding of the reports you receive.