Table 1.
Descriptions of Measures of Broad Cognitive Functions and Academic Achievement Areas.
| Cognition/Achievement Domain | Measure | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Visual-Spatial Thinking (r=.80) | Spatial Relations | Identify the pieces needed to construct a specified shape. |
| Picture Recognition | Identify previously presented pictures within a field of distracting pictures. | |
| Fluid Reasoning (r=.95) | Concept Formation | Identify, categorize, and determine rules from a complete stimulus set. |
| Analysis-Synthesis | Learn and apply novel symbolic formulations to determine the missing components of puzzles. | |
| Processing Speed (r=.92) | Visual Matching | Quickly locate and circle two identical numbers in a row of numbers. |
| Decision Speed | Quickly locate and circle two conceptually related pictures in a row of pictures. | |
| Short-Term Memory (r=.87) | Numbers Reversed | Recall a series of numbers from immediate awareness in reverse sequence. |
| Memory for Words | Repeat a list of unrelated words in the sequence presented. | |
| Long-Term Retrieval (r=.87) | Visual-Auditory Learning | Learn and recall pictorial representations of words. |
| Retrieval Fluency | Name as many examples as possible from a specified category. | |
| Auditory Processing (r=.89) | Sound Blending | Synthesize phonetic units. |
| Auditory Attention | Identify auditorily presented words in the presence of increasing intensities of background noise. | |
| Comprehension Knowledge (r=.94) | Verbal Comprehension | Name pictured objects, select synonyms and antonyms, and complete verbal analogies. |
| General Information | Identify where specified objects can be found, and what specified objects are typically used for. | |
| Academic Knowledge (r=.88) | Science, Social Studies, and Humanities subtests. | Pointing responses on early items. Oral responses on later items. |
| Reading (r=.93) | Letter-Word Identification Reading Fluency | Identify printed letters and words orally. Read printed statements rapidly and reply true or false. |
| Passage Comprehension | Identify a missing key word to make a written passage make sense. | |
| Writing (r=.94) | Spelling | Spell orally presented words. |
| Writing Fluency | Formulate and write simple sentences rapidly. | |
| Writing Samples | Write meaningful sentences for a given purpose. | |
| Mathematics (r=.95) | Calculation | Perform mathematical calculations of various types. |
| Math Fluency | Add, subtract, or multiply rapidly. | |
| Applied Problems | Perform mathematical calculations to solve orally presented problems. |
Note: Adapted from Table 4–2 of WJ-III Technical Manual (McGrew et al., 2001). Composite score reliability estimates (r) are from Mather & Woodcock (2001a) and Mather & Woodcock (2001b).