Test-retest reliability of the halstead-reitan battery and the WAIS in a neuropsychiatric population

Abstract

Abstract Data are presented concerning the test-retest reliability of the Halstead-Reitan battery and the WAIS in a heterogeneous neuropsychiatric sample of 150 patients. Relative reliability or stability of results was evaluated through use of Pearson r correlation coefficients, while absolute reliability, or sensitivity to change in clinical condition, was evaluated with paired sample t tests. Subgroups of alcoholic/trauma, schizophrenic, and vascular disease patients were extracted from the total sample in order to examine for the possibility of different reliability levels among different clinical groups. It was found that most of the components of the Halstead-Reitan battery had psychometrically satisfactory relative reliability levels. However, schizophrenics exhibited significantly lower levels of reliability than did the other subgroups. Differences in absolute reliability were characterized by a greater incidence of improved performance on second testing in the alcoholic/trauma subgroup than in t...