Why did I take the WAIS test?

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I was given the WAIS-III by a neuropsychologist this week (I had been seeing her to help find out if my intense ritualistic behaviors might be related to a sensory processing issue or an ASD).

My question is, why would she want to test my IQ? Is this test commonly used with autism spectrum disorders or sensory problems?

Also, for anyone else who has taken it, did you have the part with the cards you had to arrange into a story? I actually found those to be hilarious!

Primarily it is used to determine the scatter or pattern of your skills (scores) at different sub-tests and sub-indexes. People with ASDs usually have more and more pronounced scatter (good at something, bad at another), this is a strong indication that one might be on the spectrum. I was given the WAIS-IV, not all subtests, this card test was probably one of them.

All of those sub-tests, like the story cards, can give the psychologist clues about what's going on with you. People on the autism spectrum often have unusual patterns of high sub-test scores combined with unusually low scores, while most of the population tends to have more even sub-test scores. For example, people with ASDs, as a group, tend to do well on block design and poorly on coding. There's much more to it than that but this is the general idea.

*edit* Looks like we were writing about the same thing, at about the same time Ojani

I think, but I could be wrong, that the Picture Arrangement task was removed for the WAIS-IV. My psych used the WAIS-III specifically because it has more relevant tasks for detecting ASD traits, and I think that task was one of those. I didn't find it hilarious as such, but my psych apparently found it hilarious to watch the expressions on my face while I tried to do it! It was my second worst score, and it is expected that those with ASD will find that task more difficult.

They give that darn test to everybody they can get their hands on. Half the time I suspect them of dragging random people in from the street just so they can IQ test them. They seem to be in love with that test...

It's a test that can be useful for the evaluation of any neurodevelopmental condition, because it gives a baseline to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. After all, if you were mildly cognitively disabled, having poor social skills might not indicate AS because they could be at the level your IQ would predict.

Plus the subtest scatter can be useful.

Did they give you the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test too? That's is a good indicator of learning disabilities in general, afaik and it was one of the tests that enabled my neuropsychologist to diagnose me.

Is that the one where you have to figure out the "rules" (and adapt when they change) for sorting cards with shapes on them into 4 groups? The one I had used sqaure white cards with triangles, stars, circles (I think...or was it squares?), or + shapes, which were either red, green, yellow, or blue, and in an overall formation of one of these shapes. For me, this was extremely easy.

Yes. If it was easy and you did well, then afaik that indicates no learning disability. I'll double check.

Also I re-read the part about sequencing the photographs to form a story. This task would be difficult for an autistic in certain contexts: Here:

"Results consistent for the most part with those reported in Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith 1985 have been obtained in a variety of subsequent studies.[3] In addition, a later study by Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith (1986) employed a largely non-verbal test in which children were asked to put the frames of a picture story into the proper sequence. Where the sequence was one of mechanistic causality, children with autism performed at least as well as normal children and those with Down's syndrome. But where the "right" sequence (recognized immediately by normal adults) depicts a story involving false belief, the performance of autistic children was no better than chance, and far worse than that of normal and Down's syndrome subjects. "

Edited to add: If you want to tell me what tests were administered I can link the research behind it. I looked up all of my tests I had done and found out a lot of useful information.

Further: Yes, testing your IQ is required for an autism spectrum diagnosis. There are almost always discrepancies between performance and verbal IQ's in ASDs, which leads to diagnosis along with analysis of the other test results.

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test is an executive function test. It assesses your ability to a) figure out a set of rules, and b) shift to a new set of rules when that changes.

Not everyone with learning disabilities will have trouble on this test, nor will everyone with executive dysfunction (there are many different executive functions that could be impaired). But poor performance on this test is seen in many different conditions, including autism.

(Interestingly, convicted psychopaths do poorly on this test, while psychopaths who've avoided jail typically do fine on it.)

Thank you for clarifying. I was careful but I still made an assumption.

Disclaimer: have not read all of responses. May be repeat information.

Sometimes, neuropsychologists give a "battery" of tests, meaning a pre-defined set of tests that assess a wide range of things. Patterns within the scores help to paint a more well-rounded picture.

I was a psychometrist for a number of years, and intelligence tests were pretty standard in most batteries, except those in which the issue was purely a psych one.

Yup, I definitely got batteried.

I was reciting numbers, recalling word lists, putting pegs into holes, circling little symbols on maps, counting elevator pings, getting touched, squeezing things, etc. Luckily, we finished it all in the amount of time the insurance company was willing to pay for!

You should get a nice report, then, that will give you a pretty detailed description of your strengths and weaknesses.

hmmm....I do not remember any test that had you count elevator pings....interesting!

I think it may have been an ADHD-type of test. It was on an old cassette tape, and all I had to do was focus and count them (they added distracting ones that sounded different as we went along).