Abstract
The diagnostic validity is the most important type of criterion-related validity for clinical psychologists and neuropsychologists selecting tests to inform the diagnostic process. The diagnostic validity of tests has traditionally been evaluated with null-hypothesis significance testing of mean group differences. While these null-hypothesis significance testing analyses provide general information about how groups with various disease entities perform on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III) and Wechsler Memory Scale-III (MWS-III), such group comparisons are less useful to the clinician wishing to determine the utility of these measures as aides in diagnosing individual patients. Traditionally, group descriptive statistics intended to characterize test reliability and validity such as test-retest correlation coefficients and convergent and broadly applicable means of communicating about and comparing test properties. The provision of such statistics is an obligation of test developers and has been critical to test users' ability to compare and select instruments that meet minimum measurement standards. The diagnostic validity of a test can be reflected in indices such as sensitivity, specificity, overall diagnostic accuracy or hit rate, and odds ratios.
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