WAIS-R scatter with psychiatric inpatients: I Intrasubtest scatter.

Intrasubtest scatter values for eight WAIS-R subtests were estimated for a sample of 150 psychiatric inpatients and compared with those reported for a comparable portion of the WAIS-R standardization group by Kaplan, Fein, Morris, and Delis in 1991, using the normal deviate (z) test. The standardization group's intrasubtest scatter was significantly greater than those reported for the psychiatric inpatients on all subtests except Arithmetic and Information. These results suggested that, contrary to expectation, limited intrasubtest scatter may characterize WAIS-R protocols of psychiatric inpatients, while the presence of scatter may characterize normal WAIS-R performance.