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Wechsler, D. (2002). The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Third Edition (WPPSI-III). San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
General Information
The WPPSI-III (Wechsler, 20023) is an individually administered measure of intelligence for young children. It is the latest revision of the WPPSI from The Psychological Corporation (TPC) and features a number of significant changes from previous editions. The age range has been extended down to 2 years, 6 months (2:6) and like the WPPSI-R (Wechsler, 1989) extends to 7:3. The test is now divided up into age bands, the younger covering from 2:6 to 3:11 and the older from 4:0 to 7:3. This was done to tailor the test battery to the differences in cognitive processes between younger and older preschoolers.
There have also been major changes at the subtest level. Seven new subtests have been added. Many of these were created to update the WPPSI's theoretical foundations. One goal in this update was to better assess fluid reasoning abilities. To this end, the Picture Concepts, Matrix Reasoning, and Word Reasoning subtests were created. A second goal of the update was to measure processing speed abilities in preschoolers similar to the WISC-III (Wechsler, 1991) and the WAIS-III (Wechsler, 1997). Modified versions of the Coding and Symbol Search subtests from the WISC-III were created for preschoolers in the older age band. Two other subtests, Receptive Vocabulary and Picture Naming, were added to better assess language skills.
Five subtests have been dropped from the WPPSI-R. Gone are Arithmetic, Animal Pegs, Geometric Design, Mazes, and Sentences. Of note is a decreased emphasis for the WPPSI-III in directly assessing memory skills. The test authors suggest that the clinician wanting a good assessment of memory skills in a younger child can turn to other tools such as the Children's Memory Scales (Cohen, 1997).
Several changes were made to make the WPPSI more developmentally appropriate for younger children. Test instructions were designed to better fit the language level of preschoolers. Also, more teaching items and prompts were built into the subtests. As well, outside of the Processing Speed subtests, an attempt was made to reduce possible confounds of speed on performance by removing the bonus points for quick completion of Block Design or Object Assembly items. An effort...