The Validity of Bannatyne's Acquired Knowledge Category as a Separate Construct

Abstract

The validity of Bannatyne's recategorization of WISC-R subtests was tested by applying multiple group factor analysis to the intercorrelation matrices of the 7.5-, 10.5-, and 13.5-year samples from the WISC-R standardization. Although the Acquired Knowledge category had a high reliability coefficient, it was almost completely linearly dependent on the other categories, particularly Conceptualization. Consequently, differences between these two categories will be unreliable. It was concluded that scores on Acquired Knowledge provide no unique information, and their interpretation as a measure of educational attainment, apart from verbal ability, was discouraged.