WAIS IV Testing Paper

Interpretive Report of WAIS—IV Testing
Examinee and Testing Information Examinee Name
Francisco R Violante
Date of Report
11/28/2012
Examinee ID Education
M.D.
Date of Birth
02/11/1963
Home Language
Spanish
Gender
Male
Handedness
Right
Race/Ethnicity
Hispanic
Examiner Name
Carmen Adriana Torres Test Administered WAIS—IV (11/28/2012) Age at Testing 49 years 9 months Retest? No WAIS—IV Comments Score Summary
WAIS—IV Scale
Score
Verbal Comprehension
118
Perceptual Reasoning
123
Working Memory
108
Processing Speed
108
Full Scale
119

Purpose for Evaluation
Francisco agreed to participate in this evaluation with the purpose of allowing a graduate student the opportunity of practice administration
of these type of examinations and provide the student with necessary experience in testes administration. Background
Francisco is a 49-year-old married Hispanic male who lives with his spouse and has been for the past 24 years and 7 months. He has 3 children. Francisco achieved a degree of Medical Doctor. According to Francisco, he hasn’t been diagnosed with any type of mental dysfunction, either psychiatric or traumatic. He has, however been diagnosed with hypertension. For the past 26 years Francisco has been employed full-time (morning shift) as a gastrointestinal surgeon in the State Department Hospital (IMSS) located in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico. He is part of the American Surgical Association (ACS) Fellows. He has also been employed full-time (night shift) on a Health Department Hospital, and has his private practice active in the afternoons. He is also a member of the Mexican Association of Surgeons. It is reported that his work performance and ethics are exemplary. Test Session Behavior
Francisco arrived on time for the test session unaccompanied. Francisco is very healthy, and he has worked out every morning for the past 30 years so his appearance was healthy and neat. He was oriented to person, place, time and situation. Francisco exhibited no notable motor difficulties during testing. Visual problems due to age are present but corrected with glasses. Francisco has never reported auditory problems of any kind. His first language is Spanish, but he’s fluent in English given his advanced degree of scholarity and academic achievements. Francisco seemed attentive and concentrated as well as motivated at the beginning of the testing session. Towards the end, however, he experienced a bit of anxiety because of the lengthy characteristic of the examination. A short break was provided, which seem to relieve the anxiety to some extent. Francisco mentioned that he wasn’t as fast as he used to be due to age. Interpretation of WAIS—IV Results General Intellectual Ability
Francisco performed much better on both the verbal comprehension and perceptual reasoning task than on the working memory and processing speed of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Fourth Edition (WAIS—IV). Francisco’s age had an influence on his ability to perform during the working memory and processing speed tasks. Francisco’s general cognitive ability, therefore, is best estimated by his performance on verbal and reasoning tasks. His verbal reasoning ability is high average range and above that of approximately 88% of his peers (VCI = 118; 95% confidence interval = 112-123). His perceptual reasoning ability is also high average range and above that of approximately 94% of his peers (VCI = 123; 95% confidence interval = 116-128). Verbal Comprehension
Francisco’s verbal reasoning abilities as measured by the Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) are in the high average range and above those of approximately 88% of his peers (VCI = 118; 95% confidence interval = 112-123). The VCI is designed to measure verbal reasoning and concept formation. Francisco performed comparably on the verbal subtests contributing to the VCI, suggesting that the various verbal cognitive abilities measured by these subtests are similarly developed. Furthermore, he may experience little or no difficulty in keeping up with his peers in situations that require verbal skills. Francisco achieved his best performance among the verbal reasoning tasks on the Similarities and Information subtest. His strong performance on the Similarities and Information subtests were better than that of most of his peers. The Similarities subtest required Francisco to demonstrate verbal abstract reasoning and find similarities between word pairs. As a direct assessment of word knowledge, the subtest is one indication of his verbal abstract reasoning. Performance on this subtest also requires abilities to verbalize overlapping concepts between two words (similarities scaled score = 16). The Information subtest required Francisco to respond orally to questions about common events, objects, places, and people. The subtest is primarily a measure of his fund of general knowledge. Performance on this subtest also may be influenced by cultural experience and quality of education, as well as his ability to retrieve information from long-term memory (Information scaled score = 13). Perceptual Reasoning
Francisco’s nonverbal reasoning abilities as measured by the Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI) are in the high average range and above those of 94% of his peers (PRI = 123; 95% confidence interval = 116-128). The PRI is designed to measure fluid reasoning in the perceptual domain with tasks that assess nonverbal concept formation, visual perception and organization, visual-motor coordination, learning, and the ability to separate figure and ground in visual stimuli. Francisco’s performance on the perceptual reasoning subtests contributing to the PRI is comparable suggesting that the various verbal cognitive abilities measured by these subtests are similarly developed. Examination of Francisco’s performance on individual subtests provides additional information regarding his nonverbal abilities. Working Memory
Francisco’s ability to sustain attention, concentrate and exert mental control is in the average range. He performed better than approximately 70% of his peers in this area (Working Memory Index (WMI) = 108; 95% confidence interval 101-114). Francisco’s abilities to sustain attention, concentrate, and exert mental control are a weakness relative to his verbal reasoning abilities. A weakness in mental control may make the processing of complex information more time-consuming for John, draining his mental energies more quickly as compared to others at his level of ability, and perhaps result in more frequent errors on a variety of learning or complex work tasks. Processing Speed
Francisco’s ability in processing simple or routine visual material without making errors is in the average range when compared to his peers. He performed better than approximately 70% of his peers on the processing speed tasks (Processing Speed Index (PSI) = 108; 95% confidence interval = 99-116). Francisco’s performance on the subtests that compose the PSI is quite comparable; therefore, one can suggest that the abilities measured are similarly developed. He performed much better on Coding (Scaled score = 13), which is more demanding of fine-motor skills, short-term memory, and learning ability than on Symbol Search (Scaled score = 10), which is more demanding of attention to detail and visual discrimination. Summary
Francisco agreed to the evaluation administration with the purpose of allowing a graduate student the opportunity of practice administration and to acquire the necessary experience in tests administration. Francisco is a 49-year-old Hispanic male who completed the WAIS—IV. His completely healthy, no health conditions other than maybe the speed of processing and the memory abilities decrease normal of age may have influenced his performance on working memory and processing speed. Thus his verbal abilities and reasoning may be the best estimate of Francisco’s overall intellectual functioning. Francisco’s verbal reasoning and perceptual reasoning abilities are in the high average range when compared to his peers (VCI =118; PRI = 123). Francisco’s ability to sustain attention, concentrate, and exert mental control is in the average range (WMI = 108). Francisco’s ability in processing simple or routine visual material without making errors is in the average range when compared to his peers PSI = 108). Due to the comparability between the two subtests that compose the PSI, one can safely assumed that the abilities are similarly developed.

Recommendations
In order to avoid working memory-related failures, working memory loads in structured activities should be decreased. This can be achieved in a number of ways, including:
• reducing the overall amount of material to be stored (e.g., shortening sentences to be written, or number of items to be remembered);
• increasing the meaningfulness and degree of familiarity of the material to be remembered;
• simplifying the linguistic structures of verbal material (e.g., using simple active constructions rather than passive forms with embedded clauses in activities involving remembering sentences, and in instructions);
• reducing processing demands;
• re-structuring multi-step tasks into separate independent steps, supported by memory aids if possible;
• making available and encouraging the use of memory aids (e.g., making available ‘useful spellings’ on white boards and cards, and providing number lines).
Practicing mental exercises will actually increase your brain’s processing speed. It will also strengthen attention skills, enhance working memory, and build visual manipulation skills. Many people can actually feel their brains working. These exercises, when done with intensity and frequency, will actually map new neural pathways in your brain. It really will make you smarter and think faster!

________________________ ________________________
Examiner’s Signature Supervisor Signature

WAIS—IV Score
Summary Composite Score Summary

Scale
Sum of
Scaled Scores Composite
Score

Percentile
Rank
95%
Confidence
Interval Qualitative Description
Verbal Comprehension
40
VCI
118
88
112—123
High Average
Perceptual Comprehension
42
PRI
123
94
116—128
High Average
Working Memory
23
WMI
108
70
101—114
Average
Processing Speed
23
PSI
108
70
99—116
Average
Full Scale
128
FSIQ
119
90
115—123
High Average
Confidence Intervals are based on the Overall Average SEMs. Vales reported in the SEM column are based on the examinee’s age. Composite Score Profile Composite Scores and Standard Error of Measurement
Composite
Score
SEM
VCI
118
2.60
PRI
123
3.00
WMI
108
3.35
PSI
108
5.41
FSIQ
119
2.12 Analysis Index Level Discrepancy Comparisons

Comparison

Score 1

Score 2

Difference Critical Value .05
Significant Difference
Y/N
Base Rate Overall Sample
VCI – PRI
118
123
-5
7.78
N
31.1
VCI – WMI
118
108
10
8.31
Y
22.8
VCI – PSI
118
108
10
11.76
N
27.6
PRI – WMI
123
108
15
8.81
Y
12.3
PRI – PSI
123
108
15
12.12
Y
16.8
WMI – PSI
108
108
0
12.47
N
N/A
FSIQ – GAI
119
126
-7
3.29
Y
8.8

Subtest
Raw
Score
Scaled
Score
Percentile Rank
Reference Group
Scaled Score SEM
Similarities
34
16

13
1.04
Vocabulary
44
11 13
0.73
Information
19
13 14
0.73

Perceptual Reasoning Subtest Summary Subtest
Raw
Score
Scaled
Score
Percentile Rank
Reference Group
Scaled Score SEM
Block Design
42
11 5
0.95
Matrix Reasoning
24
16 7
0.95
Visual Puzzles
21
15 8
0.85

Working Memory Subtests Summary Subtest
Raw
Score
Scaled
Score
Percentile Rank
Reference Group
Scaled Score SEM
Digit Span
28
10 6
0.73
Arithmetic
18
13 9
0.90

Processing Speed Subtests Summary Subtest
Raw
Score
Scaled
Score
Percentile Rank
Reference Group
Scaled Score SEM
Symbol Search
34
16 11
1.56
Coding
32
14 7
1.20

Determining Strengths and Weaknesses
Differences Between Subtest and Overall Mean of Subtest Scores

Subtest
Subtest Scaled
Score
Mean
Scaled
Score

Difference Critical Value
.05
Strength or Weakness Base
Rate
Block Design
11
12.8
-1.8
2.85
N/A
>25%
Similarities
16
12.8
3.2
2.82
S
10%
Digit Span
10
12.8
-2.8
2.22
W
15-25%
Matrix Reasoning
16
12.8
3.2
2.54
W
10-15%
Vocabulary
11
12.8
-1.8
2.03
N/A
>25%
Arithmetic
13
12.8
0.2
2.73
N/A
>25%
Symbol Search
10
12.8
-2.8
3.42
N/A
>25%
Visual Puzzles
15
12.8
2.2
2.71
N/A
>25%
Information
13
12.8
0.2
2.19
N/A
>25%
Coding
13
12.8
0.2
2.97
N/A
>25%