RESUMEN
Although most clinicians would readily agree that there is a need for Spanish translations and normative samples of major psychological tests because of the large number of individuals within the United States whose primary language is Spanish, there are in fact few well normed tests applicable to the Spanish-speaking client in the U.S. As a result, many clinicians administer cognitive tests normed on English-speaking American populations translated into Spanish, then interpret the test results using the standard American norms. The argument is generally made that such a procedure is a reasonable approximation and when cautiously interpreted can be useful. The present study investigated the impact of this practice by using the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) on Spanish-speaking adults. A group of 50 normal Hispanic Americans aged 25 to 34 years were administered the WMS-R translated into Spanish. Results showed that using English-language standard norms resulted in Spanish-speaking normal individuals getting scores an average of 1 standard deviation below "average." These findings were present not only for verbal but for nonverbal tests as well. Based on these results we strongly argue against the clinical practice of using translations of English language tests without renorming and running new validity tests.
Asunto(s)
Comparación Transcultural , Hispánicos o Latinos/psicología , Lenguaje , Recuerdo Mental , Escalas de Wechsler/estadística & datos numéricos , Adulto , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Psicometría , Valores de Referencia , Reproducibilidad de los Resultados , TraducciónRESUMEN
Although the Spanish version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS; Escala de Inteligencia Wechsler para Adultos [EIWA]) is the most frequently used intellectual assessment for Spanish speaking clients in the United States, there is little information available on score differences necessary to establish reliable and abnormal differences between Performance IQ (PIQ) and Verbal IQ (VIQ), and between the various subtests of the EIWA. The present study, based on EIWA standardization data (N = 616 Puerto Ricans), reports reliability data and base rates to assist in evaluating the clinical significance of PIQ-VIQ differences. The results demonstrated substantial similarity between the EIWA and the English versions of the Wechsler tests. The interpretation of these differences is discussed, and tables are presented of statistically and clinically significant differences.
Asunto(s)
Hispánicos o Latinos/psicología , Inteligencia , Psicometría/estadística & datos numéricos , Escalas de Wechsler/estadística & datos numéricos , Adolescente , Adulto , Humanos , Persona de Mediana Edad , Psicometría/normas , Desempeño Psicomotor , Puerto Rico/etnología , Valores de Referencia , Reproducibilidad de los Resultados , Muestreo , Traducción , Conducta Verbal , Escalas de Wechsler/normasRESUMEN
The Spanish version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R, Wechsler, 1974)-the Escala de Inteligencia para Niños-Revision (EIWN-R, Wechsler, 1982)-has a potentially important role in the assessment of Hispanic children. However, little is known regarding its psychometric characteristics. This study used the normative data from the EIWN-R standardization sample (N = 532 Cuban Americans) to examine its factorial composition and general comparability with the WISC-R. Within each of the 11 age groups (ages 6 1/2 to 16 1/2), the correlation matrix of raw scores was subjected to a principal components analysis and varimax rotation. The results supported a 2-factor solution across age groups roughly corresponding with Wechsler's verbal and performance dimensions. The existence of a meaningful third factor, which has empirical support in the WISC-R literature, failed to emerge for the EIWN-R.