Relation of WAIS Verbal and Performance IQs for Four Psychiatric Conditions

Abstract

Of the diagnostic signs developed by Wechsler on his intelligence scale the most widely used probably is the Verbal minus Performance difference. It has been held by Wechsler that in most mental disorders impairment is generally greater in the performance than in the verbal area. As part of a larger study the WAIS was given to neuropsychiatric in-patients. Four of the major categories were among those to which Wechsler's diagnostic measures apply: schizophrenia; manic-depressive reaction, manic type; depressions of psychotic intensity; and psychoneuroses. It was hypothesized that in all of these the impairment would be significantly greater in performance than in verbal scores. The hypothesis was sustained only for the schizophrenics. This observation may represent a reaction formation against the severe ego impairment characteristic of this disorder. Additional support for this was found in the more reliable behavior of paranoid schizophrenics, in whose symptomatology verbalization is prominent. Some confirmatory data are found in other studies.