
Visual Puzzles correlated significantly with measures of visuospatial reasoning, verbal learning and recall, mental flexibility, processing speed, and naming, which accounted for 50% of the variance in Visual Puzzles performance.
What was used to determine which measures were a neuropsychological measure?
What type of regression analysis was conducted in the first research study?
How many veterans were in the mixed clinical sample?
Is visual puzzles a pure measure of performance?
Is gender included in visual puzzles?
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About this website

What does each subtest of the WAIS-IV measure?
The subtest was developed to measure non-verbal reasoning and the ability to understand abstract visual information. The individual is presented with a picture of a pair of scales in which there are missing weights, and they have to choose the correct weights to keep the scales in balance.
What is the difference between block design and visual puzzles?
The VSI is derived from two subtests. During Block Design (BD), Sample viewed a model and/or picture and used two-colored blocks to re-create the design. Visual Puzzles (VP) required her to view a completed puzzle and select three response options that together would reconstruct the puzzle.
What does information on the WAIS measure?
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is an IQ test designed to measure intelligence and cognitive ability in adults and older adolescents. The original WAIS (Form I) was published in February 1955 by David Wechsler, as a revision of the Wechsler–Bellevue Intelligence Scale, released in 1939.
Are WAIS visual puzzles timed?
To complete each Visual Puzzles item, the individual selects the three response options (from six) that could be combined to reproduce a geometric image. Items are timed. It was designed to be a non-motor task that would measure similar constructs to those measured by the WAIS-III Object Assembly subtest.
What is a visual puzzle?
A visual puzzle, also called a visual brain teaser, is any logic or reasoning problem that is expressed and solved using drawings and/or images.
What does block design and visual puzzles measure?
The block design test measures a person's visuospatial abilities— that is, how well they can mentally imagine, rotate, combine, and reason about visual information. (These abilities often go by different names, like spatial skills, visuospatial reasoning, or visual thinking.)
What are the four categories of tests measured by the WAIS-IV?
WAIS-IVVerbal Comprehension Index (VCI)Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI)Working Memory Index (WMI)Processing Speed Index (PSI)
What are the core subtests of the WAIS 4?
The WAIS-IV has 10 core subtests (Arithmetic, Block Design, Comprehension, Digit Span, Digit Symbol, Information, Letter-Number Sequencing, Matrix Reasoning, Picture Arrangement, Picture Completion, Processing Speed, Object Assembly, Similarities, Symbol Search, and Vocabulary) which make up four index scores, ...
What does the Wechsler scale measure?
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is an intelligence test first published in 1955 and designed to measure intelligence in adults and older adolescents.
What are the visual puzzles called?
A REBUS is a picture representation of a name, work, or phrase. Each "rebus" puzzle box below portrays a common word or phrase.
What is visual perception in IQ test?
Perception is being able to interpret the information that your different senses receive from your surroundings. This ability to interpret information depends on your particular cognitive processes and prior knowledge. Visual perception could be defined as the ability to interpret the information that our eyes receive.
What does visual IQ mean?
Simply put, visual-spatial intelligence is intelligence associated with the ability to easily perceive visual trends, conceptualize shapes and objects, and interpret images and diagrams. This type of intelligence is commonly found among those who excel as architects, artists, and engineering.
What do you mean by block design?
In combinatorial mathematics, a block design is an incidence structure consisting of a set together with a family of subsets known as blocks, chosen such that frequency of the elements satisfies certain conditions making the collection of blocks exhibit symmetry (balance).
What are the visual puzzles called?
A REBUS is a picture representation of a name, work, or phrase. Each "rebus" puzzle box below portrays a common word or phrase.
What is the difference between block design and factorial design?
The only difference between the two-way factorial and the randomized block design is that in the former more than one subject is observed per cell. This subtle difference allows the estimation of the interaction effect as distinct from the error term.
What are those visual puzzles called?
Rebus puzzlesRebus puzzles, also known as word picture puzzles or picture riddles, use images or words to convey a phrase or message, typically a common idiom or expression.
WAIS-IV Visual Puzzles: A Measure of Executive Functioning?
Request PDF | On Jan 1, 2011, J. Holster and others published WAIS-IV Visual Puzzles: A Measure of Executive Functioning? | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
Wais Score Interpretation | Actforlibraries.org
The WAIS is a very valuable test. Once it is understood, the information discovered in the WAIS can help people understand their strengths and weaknesses, which is the first step in improving understanding and knowledge.
WAIS-IV Score Report Sample - Pearson Assessments
WAIS®-IV Score Report ID: 121233 2016/11/25, Page 7 Dennis E Longest Digit Span Sequence Longest Digit Span Backward - Longest Digit Span Sequence 8 6 2 -- -- 6.0 Statistical significance (critical value) at the .05 level.
WAIS-IV visual puzzles in a mixed clinical sample - PubMed
Little is known about which cognitive functions underlie the new Visual Puzzles subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV). The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between Visual Puzzles and common neuropsychological measures in a mixed clinical sa …
Interpretive Report of WAIS–IV Testing
Female is a 40-year-8-month-old female who completed the WAIS–IV. Her overall cognitive ability, as evaluated by the WAIS–IV, cannot easily be summarized because her verbal reasoning abilities are
Interpretive Report of WAIS–IV and WMS–IV Testing
Sample Comments. WMS–IV Comments : The Examinee attended the session alone and was cooperative and . gave his best effort during testing.
What is balance beam test?
The balance beam test is a well-known Piagetian task [ 18 ], and successful performance on it has been classically considered to be an indicator of the development of formal stage of operations. In his review, Carroll notes that Piagetian reasoning tasks correlate most highly with the general intelligence factor and then with fluid intelligence factor and subsequently with crystallized intelligence [ 3 ]. de Ribaupierre and Lecerf found that working memory explained more than 80% of the age-related variance in performance on these types of Piagetian tasks in adults [ 6 ]. These developmental psychologists have shown that Piagetian tasks are relatively pure measures of fluid intelligence and are relatively less influenced by knowledge base and strategies. Recent psychometric studies showed that Figure Weights is the highest loading fluid intelligence subtest in the WAIS-IV battery and that it can be best described as a combination of quantitative reasoning and fluid intelligence [ 1 ]. A quantitative reasoning composite score on the WAIS-IV was further characterized in a 1 : 1 equation of Figure Weights and the Arithmetic subtests by these authors [ 1 ].
What is the Wechsler visual puzzle?
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Fourth Edition's Visual Puzzles is most similar in structure and tapped cognitive processes to the Minnesota Paper Form Board [ 7 ]. The Minnesota Paper Form Board (MPFB) requires mental transformation, manipulation, and analysis of dimensional objects. The test uses geometric shapes to assess the examinee's mechanical-spatial abilities. The original MPFB test consisted of 64 two-dimensional shapes that were drawn in separate pieces, requiring the examinee to visualize the pieces as a complete geometric shape in order to derive the correct answer. In the Visual Puzzles subtest, the examinee views a completed puzzle and selects three options that when combined in the mind's eye reconstruct the puzzle. Visual Puzzles is a new subtest designed to measure nonverbal reasoning and the ability to analyze and synthesize abstract visual stimuli [ 8 ].
What is the 4th edition of Wechsler?
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale —Fourth Edition released in 2008 is the most current edition of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales dating from the initial Wechsler-Bellevue first published in 1939 [ 1 ]. Loring and Bauer note that the conormed Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales and the Wechsler Memory Scales are the two most common psychological tests used in clinical care and research in neurology [ 2 ]. There have been significant structural and content changes in the Fourth Edition. These changes include the addition of three new subtests of Visual Puzzles, Figure Weights, and Cancellation as well as the deletion of Object Assembly and Picture Arrangement from the WAIS-III. Added benefits for this new instrument include lower floor items and much higher difficult ceiling items, thereby providing greater measurement stability at lower and higher ability levels. Loring and Bauer cautioned that there are presently insufficient data on neurological populations to ensure appropriate application of the WAIS-IV for neuropsychological evaluations. While we agree with Loring and Bauer on this point, there are still 12 subtests that aside from some new content additions and updates are largely unchanged. This study is an effort to integrate and synthesize the extant data on the cognitive psychological, neuropsychological, and functional neuroimaging literatures on the correlates of the three new tasks of Visual Puzzles, Figure Weights, and Cancellation.
What is the visual puzzle subtest?
In the Visual Puzzles subtest, examinees are required to view a completed puzzle and select three elements from 6 stimulus shapes that can be combined in their mind's eye via edge completion to form the gestalt puzzle. In the Figure Weights subtest quantitative reasoning skills are required to select the appropriate missing weights needed to balance a scale. The Figure Weights subtest is similar in design to Piagetian balance beam tasks [ 6 ]. Finally, the new Cancellation subtest requires examinees to distinguish the color and shape of stimuli and identify target shapes via manual crossing through of items. Benson and colleagues showed that the Figure Weights, Visual Puzzles, and Cancellation's loadings on the general factor were 0.78, 0.68, and 0.37, respectively [ 1 ]. Figure Weight's g loading was the highest of all of the 15 WAIS-IV subtests and the next highest loading subtests included Arithmetic (0.75), Vocabulary (0.74), and Similarities and Block Design (both at 0.70). The lowest loading subtest in the WAIS-IV is Cancellation at 0.37, and it is construed as primarily a measure of processing speed. The Cancellation subtest should theoretically also constitute a good means of assessing visual field neglect. Visual field neglect can adversely affect any number of higher-order cognitive functions. Also of interest was that Block Design has been supplanted by Figure Weights in the WAIS-IV as the highest loading nonverbal subtest.
What is cancellation in neuropsychology?
Cancellation is a supplemental subtest that requires that subjects scan a structured arrangement of colored shapes and mark the targets and avoid the distractors. This subtest is similar to cancellation tasks designed to measure processing speed, visual selective attention, vigilance, perceptual speed, and visuomotor ability. Such cancellation of lines or 2-dimensional letters across the left and right visual fields have been used for many years in clinical neuropsychology [ 8 ]. Cancellation tasks are often used to assess visual neglect, response inhibition, and motor perseveration. The wide angle horizontal field of view of the WAIS-IV's Cancellation subtest would render it suitable for examining unilateral spatial neglect in the left and right visual fields if necessary. There are numerous types of cancellation tasks. Halligan and Marshall showed that the Test of Visual Neglect was able to parse two dimensional neglect [ 23 ]. Not only was left neglect evident with right cerebrovascular accident (CVA) but also there was a graded selective inattention within each of the four sections of the visual field. Similarly, the Bells Test identified a significant number of visual neglect patients suffering from right CVA [ 24 ]. Both of these tests are similar to the WAIS-IV's Cancellation subtest.
How old was participant 2?
Participant 2 was a 64-year-old right-handed male with five years of college education that had sustained a large infarct in the left inferior frontal lobe as a result of an anterior communicating artery aneurysm ( Figure 2 ). He was assessed 31 months after stroke, and his premorbid FSIQ was estimated in the high average range at 117. Participant 2 demonstrated poor verbal abstraction, verbal working memory impairment, poor verbal sequencing, poor auditory memory, poor olfactory discrimination, verbal proactive interference, verbal perseveration, and poor executive functions.
Which brain region is most important for visual puzzles?
The literature review suggests that long-range frontocerebellar tracts emanating from right hemisphere premotor cortex and decussating across to the left cerebellum are likely to be important for optimal performance on the Visual Puzzles subtest [ 10 ]. Linn and Petersen demonstrated that such mental rotation tasks can be solved by both visualization and verbal strategies suggesting bilateral hemispheric processing [ 12 ]. Finally, mental rotation tasks previously demonstrated reliance on bilateral posterior parietal cortex and bilateral premotor cortex along with posterior occipital cortices [ 14, 15 ]. Such patterns of activation as well as the spatial nature of rotations, (which are temporally graded in terms of degree of rotation), [ 17] suggest use of dorsal stream online nonverbal transformation. Our data showed that left temporoparietal lesions had the largest effect on mental rotation on the Visual Puzzles task. Participant 2's left prefrontal lesion did not adversely affect performance on Visual Puzzles consonant with premotor cortex being the most rostral extent of cortex that would be activated in this type of task. Participant 3's right temporal lesion similarly did not adversely affect performance suggesting that in this predominately nonverbal task it is the dorsal stream premotor-parietal tracts that are most critical for performance on Visual Puzzles.
What is cancellation in neuropsychology?
Cancellation is a supplemental subtest that requires that subjects scan a structured arrangement of colored shapes and mark the targets and avoid the distractors. This subtest is similar to cancellation tasks designed to measure processing speed, visual selective attention, vigilance, perceptual speed, and visuomotor ability. Such cancellation of lines or 2-dimensional letters across the left and right visual fields have been used for many years in clinical neuropsychology [ 8#N#D. Wechsler, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale: Technical and Interpretive Manual, Psychological Corporation, San Antonio, Tex, USA, 4th edition, 2008.#N#See in References#N#]. Cancellation tasks are often used to assess visual neglect, response inhibition, and motor perseveration. The wide angle horizontal field of view of the WAIS-IV’s Cancellation subtest would render it suitable for examining unilateral spatial neglect in the left and right visual fields if necessary. There are numerous types of cancellation tasks. Halligan and Marshall showed that the Test of Visual Neglect was able to parse two dimensional neglect [ 23#N#P. W. Halligan and J. C. Marshall, “Is neglect (only) lateral? A quadrant analysis of line cancellation,” Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 793–798, 1989. View at: Google Scholar#N#See in References#N#]. Not only was left neglect evident with right cerebrovascular accident (CVA) but also there was a graded selective inattention within each of the four sections of the visual field. Similarly, the Bells Test identified a significant number of visual neglect patients suffering from right CVA [ 24#N#M. Vanier, L. Gauthier, J. Lambert et al., “Evaluation of left visuospatial neglect: norms and discrimination power of two tests,” Neuropsychology, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 87–96, 1990. View at: Google Scholar#N#See in References#N#]. Both of these tests are similar to the WAIS-IV’s Cancellation subtest.
What is participant 4?
Participant 4 was a 23-year-old right-handed male with 5 years of college that had sustained a right posterior thalamic infarct after a third ventricle tumor (Figure 4 ). He was assessed four months after infarct, and his premorbid FSIQ was estimated to be in high average range at 114. Participant 4 demonstrated graphomotor slowing, executive function impairment, left hand incoordination, impaired recognition of the emotions of surprise and fear, acquired anosmia, and associative visual agnosia. Participant 4 performed significantly higher on the Verbal Working Memory Index compared with the Processing Speed Index and Perceptual Reasoning Index (both 𝑃 ’s < . 0 5 ) (see Table 7 ).
How old was participant 2?
Participant 2 was a 64-year-old right-handed male with five years of college education that had sustained a large infarct in the left inferior frontal lobe as a result of an anterior communicating artery aneurysm (Figure 2 ). He was assessed 31 months after stroke, and his premorbid FSIQ was estimated in the high average range at 117. Participant 2 demonstrated poor verbal abstraction, verbal working memory impairment, poor verbal sequencing, poor auditory memory, poor olfactory discrimination, verbal proactive interference, verbal perseveration, and poor executive functions.
What is the CT image of participant 1?
Participant no. 1 with a left temporoparietal lesion. The CT image in (a) depicts an axial scan through the maximum width of the lesion in the left angular gyrus. The dark area within the confines of the left hemisphere shows surgical evacuation of infarcted tissue within the left temporoparietal cortex. The CT image in (b) depicts the maximal width of the lesion in the left inferior temporal lobe. According to neuroradiological convention left side of the image is the right hemisphere and the right side of the image is the left hemisphere.
When was the Wechsler 4th edition released?
Introduction. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Fourth Edition released in 2008 is the most current edition of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales dating from the initial Wechsler-Bellevue first published in 1939 [ 1. N. Benson, D. M. Hulac, and J. H. Kranzler, “Independent examination of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Fourth Edition ...
What is ipsative profile?
Ipsative profile of participant’s age-scaled scores on visual puzzles, figure weights and cancellation.
Where is the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre?
This research was approved by the Research and Performance Support institutional review committee of the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region at the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre in Regina, Canada. All research participants provided their informed written consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. We thank the research participants for participating in this study. Thanks are also extended to Dr. Gregor Jason, D. Phil. for his discussions of the individual participant’s comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations. Joan Harmsworth-Dow of the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre’s Health Sciences Library provided assistance with literature searches. The authors of this paper report no conflict of interests.
What is scorer error?
Scorer error is due to inconsistency in the scoring of tests. According to the manuals the average scorer consistency, on the core subtests required to measure Full Scale IQ, is about .97 for the WAIS-IV and .98 for the WISC-IV. This would mean that the effective 95 per cent confidence interval for scorer error would be four points for the WAIS-IV and five points for the WISC-IV. However, I suggested in Chapter 3 that if the test re-test studies were done using different scorers for each assessment, then scorer error would be included in the error due to lack of stability. It may be possible to reduce scorer error by ensuring that all scorers are fully trained and by having tests scored by two separate scorers and any incon-sistencies in scoring considered carefully so that a correct score was more likely. However, as with temporal error we are currently not in a position to say by how much this would reduce the error.
What is the purpose of the subtest?
The subtest was developed to measure non-verbal reasoning and the ability to understand abstract visual information.
Why is the Flynn effect so bad?
The Flynn effect is due to changes in the absolute intellectual ability of the population as a whole over time. This causes IQ tests to be inaccurate as the tests compare an individual’s intellectual ability to the intellectual ability of the popu-lation when the test was standardised and not as it is when the test was given. The Flynn effect could be minimised by always using the latest standardisation of a test, since if a test has only just been standardised there will be no Flynn effect.If a test were less than four years old then the effect would be one point or less and so could be ignored. Flynn (2009) has argued that if a test is a few years old the effect can be corrected by subtracting .3 of an IQ point for each year since the test was standardised. On balance I feel that this is probably the best approach to take at the moment. However, it may not always be the case and does not seem to be the case in other areas of the world at the moment. There is evidence from Scandinavia that the effect may have gone into reverse in the low range (Teasdale and Owen 2005), resulting in tests underestimating IQ as they go out of date. It therefore cannot be assumed that this method of correction for the Flynn effect will continue to be valid, nor can we tell, without extensive studies, how valid it is at any one time.
How many subtests are there in WISC IV?
The WISC-IV has 15 subtests, 10 of which are core subtests that are usually used to measure the four index scores and Full Scale IQ. The other five are supplemen-tary subtests that can be used if for some reason a core subtest cannot be used or is not appropriate for a particular child.
What is the purpose of the Peach and Apple test?
The test is designed to assess verbal reasoning and the development of concepts.
Why does my child have to cross out pictures?
The child looks at a random sequence of pictures and is required to cross out target pictures. In addition to processing speed it is probably affected by other factors such as attention, and visual neglect.
Can intellectual ability be measured?
It is a central theme of the book that true intellectual ability cannot be measured accurately in the low range. It follows from this that we should not be using cut-off points in diagnosis or making statements about what an individual’s IQ is without a lot of qualification with regard to the test error. However, as things are at the moment, with intellectual disability still being defined in terms of an IQ cut-off point, it is likely that psycho logists will be called upon to make an estimate of what somebody’s true intellectual ability is. What I want to do in this appendix is to look at how we can get the best estimate of an individual’s true intellectual ability.
What was used to determine which measures were a neuropsychological measure?
neuropsychological measures. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to determine which
What type of regression analysis was conducted in the first research study?
the research, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted. The first
How many veterans were in the mixed clinical sample?
logical measures in a mixed clinical sample. A total of 44 veterans (75% men) were
Is visual puzzles a pure measure of performance?
Puzzles performance. The results indicate that Visual Puzzles is not a pure measure of
Is gender included in visual puzzles?
Visual Puzzles ( r ¼ .01). Gender was not included, as Linn and Peterson (1995)

Abstract
Introduction
- The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Fourth Edition released in 2008 is the most current edition of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales dating from the initial Wechsler-Bellevue first published in 1939 [ 1. N. Benson, D. M. Hulac, and J. H. Kranzler, “Independent examination of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV): what does the WAIS-IV measure?” Psychologi…
Materials and Methods
- In this study, five subjects with well-characterized stroke and/or surgical resection lesions were referred by physiatrists, neurologists or neurosurgeons, for comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations. The patients were consecutively recruited into the study over an eight-month period (April of 2010 to January of 2011) at the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre in Regina, Canada. This …
Results
- Participant 1 was a 57-year-old right-handed female with one year of college that had sustained a severe left temporoparietal stroke as a result of left middle cerebral artery occlusion (Figure 1). She was assessed 10 months after stroke, and her initial premorbid FSIQ was estimated to be in the average range (104). She showed resolution of an initial global aphasia into a persistent Bro…
Discussion
- In this study, five patients with large strokes or cortical excisions were evaluated with the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre’s Standard Neuropsychological Battery. The administered tests included the WAIS-IV, WMS-IV, and the Advanced Clinical Solutions battery. Participants were also examined with a selection of executive function and attention measures as well as tests of sens…
Conclusions
- The data and literature review suggest that Visual Puzzles appears to be reliant on crossed decussated right hemisphere and left cerebellar networks as well as left parietal regions. Both visual and verbal strategies can be used to perform these mental rotation types of tasks suggesting some degree of dual hemispheric processing. However in Visual Puzzles few if any …
Acknowledgments
- This research was approved by the Research and Performance Support institutional review committee of the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region at the Wascana Rehabilitation Centre in Regina, Canada. All research participants provided their informed written consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. We thank the research participants for participating in this stud…