Time for the changing of the guard: A farewell to short forms of intelligence tests

The development of short forms of intelligence tests, especially of Wechsle r's scales, has been a pastime of researchers and clinicians for decades. T hese short forms have usually been of the two- or four-subtest variety, but other variants such as Satz-Mogel split-half short forms have also been co mmon. The literature is replete with proposed short forms and with controve rsies over their proper use, the statistical problems associated with valid ity coefficients when the short-form data are obtained from a complete admi nistration of the test battery, and the logic of choosing subtests that are long to administer and score in view of the goal to reduce time. This arti cle argues that the time has come to abandon short forms of intelligence te sts in favor of brief tests such as the K-BIT, WASI, and WRIT, which are re liable, valid, well normed, and easy both to give and score.