Bright Children and the Revised WPPSI: Concurrent Validity

This study examined the comparability of the revised WPPSI and the 1967 WPPSI in children from upper-middle-class backgrounds who have had extensive preschool experience. Thirty 4 ½- to 5½-year-old children who were seeking admission to an academically oriented kindergarten program in an independent school were administered both the WPPSI and the WPPSI-R in counter-balanced order with 3 to 5 weeks between the testing sessions. As predicted, scores on the revised instrument were substantially lower than on the older version of the WPPSI (p < .001). Additionally, compared with the older WPPSI, the WPPSI-R produces larger Verbal IQ-Performance IQ discrepancies (p < .03) and more subtest “scatter” within the Performance scale (p < .001). The two tests do not differ significantly in the amount of subtest scatter within the Verbal scale.