Wechsler Standardized Administration Procedures Flashcards

An examiner who is not adequately trained administers a Wechsler scale. The main ethical/standardization concern is that:

Answer: Improper administration and scoring can invalidate results and harm decisions

Competent administration is an ethical requirement because errors undermine validity and can lead to harmful interpretations.

Test security under standardized practice requires that:

Answer: Items and materials be kept confidential and not shared publicly

Protecting test items from exposure preserves the validity of the instrument for future examinees.

When testing an examinee whose primary language is not English, standardized procedure suggests the examiner should:

Answer: Consider language-appropriate tools or note limitations, since on-the-fly translation breaks standardization

Spontaneous translation violates standardization, so examiners should use appropriate instruments or document the limitation in interpretation.

Recording the examinee's responses verbatim is important because:

Answer: It allows accurate scoring and later review of ambiguous answers

Verbatim recording supports accurate scoring and permits review of borderline responses against the scoring guide.

If an examinee with a motor impairment cannot manipulate blocks on a performance subtest, the best practice is to:

Answer: Document the accommodation/limitation and interpret affected scores cautiously

Accommodations and their effect on standardization must be documented, and affected scores interpreted with caution.

The examiner notices the examinee may have misheard an instruction due to hearing difficulty. The standardized response is to:

Answer: Repeat the instruction clearly within allowable rules and ensure it was understood

Ensuring the examinee hears the standardized instruction (e.g., repeating where permitted) maintains both fairness and standardization.

Interpreting Wechsler results should always begin at the level of:

Answer: The most global, reliable scores (e.g., Full Scale/index) before examining subtests

Sound interpretation moves from the most reliable global composites down to indexes and then subtests, not the reverse.