ABSTRACT
Tests such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - Revised (WAIS-R) quantify different types of mental ability and group them as verbal and nonverbal scales. Subscales allow effects related to dysfunction of specific brain areas, educational underachievement, etc., to be assessed. The full-scale IQ score resulting from a WAIS-R test has been designed to compare the score of the person tested with the scores obtained from a large population of people of varying abilities. Subscale scores correlate with one another so that a person who scores high on one test tends to score high on the others. However, people with specific learning disabilities and those on the autistic spectrum may show a wide range of abilities. For example, a person with autism may be gifted in mental arithmetic but otherwise functioning in the range of learning disability. Two individuals with the same full-scale IQ may also have different profiles of abilities. The distribution of intelligence is illustrated in Figure 1.1.
