Brain syndrome and WAIS PIO VIO difference scores corrected for test artifact.

Found an artifactual discrepancy of six units between VIQ and PIQ in Ss (N = 62) of low and bright, but not of mid-range IQ. Despite the matching of psychiatric cases for dominant and nondominant cognitive function, the discrepancy took the form of a lowered PIQ. The application of an equivalent correction to the PIQs of consecutive and unmatched psychiatric cases failed to improve the neurological predictive utility of the VIQ PIQ difference score. The latter failed statistically as an alerting device for abnormal CT and EEG results and whether a neurological event was recorded in the file. Despite the observation of a strong relationship between CT outcome and VIQ PIQ difference score evidence of cognitive intactness, it was concluded that difference score, whether corrected or not, should be used with extreme caution as a screening device for psychiatric cases who might be harboring an underlying brain syndrome.