Differential relationships of age and education to WAIS subtest scores among brain-damaged and control groups

The 11 subtests of the WAIS were compared to the attribute variables of age and education in a brain-damaged group and a non-brain-damaged (control) group. Because of the validity information available for the WAIS, the subtests for the WAIS rather than the WAIS-R were studied. Data analyses compared the level of age and education (each group subdivided at the median) on WAIS subtest scores and the correlations between attribute variables and subtest scores. The results revealed a number of differences between the two groups, with age and education having a weaker and less consistent relation to WAIS subtest scores in the brain-damaged group than in the control group. The findings suggest that the relationships between attribute variables and psychological test scores are complex, and that adjusting or transforming raw scores for brain-damaged subjects according to tables based upon non-brain-damaged subjects may produce erroneous data.