WAIS-IV Use in Neuropsychological Assessment

Neuropsychological assessment has at its core the goal of identifying individual cognitive strengths and weaknesses. The study of innate cognitive abilities, as well as the understanding of the effects of neuropathological processes on human cognitive performance, is the touchstone of modern clinical neuropsychology The Wechsler scales have played an important role in the history of chapter neuropsychological assessment and cognitive neuroscience. The role of the Wechsler intelligence scales in neuropsychological assessment dates back to the Wechsler-Bellevue I. Although the present chapter focuses on the WAIS-IV, the WMS-IV was co-standardized with the WAIS-IV, and the two instruments together provide a much more comprehensive evaluation of an individual's neurocognitive status. Specifically, measures of learning, memory, and processing speed are the neuropsychological domains that are most sensitive to acquired brain impairment in general. Moreover, the WMS-IV in comparison to the WAIS-IV can demonstrate patterns specific for amnestic disorders (i.e., impaired memory with preserved intellectual, working memory, and processing speed), or patterns consistent with a dementing disorder (e.g., impaired memory accompanied by declines in intellectual skills and processing speed).