EFFECTS OF PRACTICE IN REPEATED ADMINISTRATIONS OF THE WECHSLER MEMORY SCALE-REVISED IN NORMAL ADULTS

Practice effects were examined over four administrations of the immedi ate (I) and delayed (II) portions of three subtests of the WMS-R: Logi cal Memory (LM), Verbal Paired Associates (VPA), and Visual Reproducti on (VR). A repeated measures ANOVA revealed that large and significant (p < .001) increases occurred in the General Memory (GM) and Delayed Recall (DR) indices and in the LMI, LMII, and VPAI subtests (Effect Si zes [ESs] = 0.70-0.87). Small but significant (p < .001) increases occ urred in VRI (ES = 0.24) and VRII (ES = 0.43). The greatest increase i n scores occurred at the first retest session, whereas increases of sm aller magnitudes occurred at Sessions 3 and 4. Ceiling effects occur i n subtests (VPAII, VRI, and VRII) on which individuals score most of t he total possible points at the first testing session; this makes inte rpretation of practice effects difficult. Test-retest reliability coef ficients, mean change scores from Session 1 to Session 2, standard err ors of prediction, and 95% confidence intervals are presented. These s core changes need to be taken into consideration when interpreting per formance at retest.