Validity, reliability, and standard errors of measurement for two seven-subtest short forms of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—III.

Validity and reliability coefficients and standard errors of measurement for 2 7-subtest short forms (SF) of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III; D. Wechsler, 1997) are provided. Data for the study were obtained from the WAIS-III-WMS-III Technical Manual and were based on the 2,450 adolescents and adults in the WAIS-III standardization sample. SF1 consists of Information, Digit Span, Arithmetic, Similarities, Picture Completion, Block Design, and Digit Symbol-Coding. SF2 uses the same subtest combination, except Matrix Reasoning is substituted for Block Design. For the 13 age groups in the standardization sample, the 2 short forms have impressively high validity and reliability, and small standard errors of measurement. Whenever a short form IQ is used, it is recommended that the examiner append the abbreviation Est next to the value.