Delayed recall on the Wechsler Memory Scale-revised: the factor structure revisited.

Although delayed recall tasks are prominent features of the popular Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R), exploratory factor analyses consistently have failed to identify an associated delayed recall factor. The present study tested the hypothesis (Elwood, 1991b) that a delayed recall factor could be found by substituting percent retained (saving) scores for the existing WMS-R delayed recall subtest scores. Principal component analyses of age-corrected WMS-R immediate and save scores in a mixed clinical sample failed to find the hypothesized save factor. Both the scree and MAP tests retained one general memory factor, which accounted for 42.2% of the total variance. Independent statistical programs produced essentially equivalent results. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.