Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment If I have ADHD, what is my IQ?

I recently underwent neuro-psychological evaluation to investigate my long-standing suspicion that I suffer from ADHD. As part of that evaluation, I was given the WAIS-IV, and obtained these scores:
VCI: 138
PRI: 111
WMI: 136
PSI: 84

The >3SD spread between my VCI and PSI scores, along with other results of the evaluation, confirmed a diagnosis of ADHD.

The wide discrepancies between my scores raises an interesting question: what single number should be used for my IQ? Clearly, wide variations in my scores renders the FSIQ meaningless. It's my understanding that the VCI is often regarded as the "first among equals" of the Wechsler scales, and offers the best correlation with Stanford-Binet IQ. The problem, though, is that recent editions of the Stanford-Binet test have also shifted to multiple scores.

Can anyone point me to hard evidence that the VCI (or some other Wechsler scale) correlates best with older Stanford-Binet editions, or other single-scale IQ measures?

Jeff Rosen

Jeff VCI and PRI are most heavily 'g' loaded, but the new tests work in a very different way to the older tests and as far as I am aware although you might be able to do a rough conversion of a FSIQ you can't convert a single index. With the child version of the test, the WISC, you can calculate a GAI score from the VCI and PRI only if the WMI and/or PSI are lower. But I think there are rules about doing that when there is such a big gap between VCI / PRI, so you probably couldn't donthat either. It looks like you have a real verbal/aural strength from those test results.

Welcome Jeff -
Good luck on your journey! I'd love to see how the scores change after medication - if you go that route.

I would second MumOfThree that its some version of VCI + PRI - but you straddle quite a range there as well.

I'd look for 'co-morbid' issues that might explain that spread VCI-PRI, as those 2 are both so 'g' loaded.

If you are looking for a single number - may I suggest 2 potential words:
"spike-y"
"twice exceptional"

As for Gifted, if the shoe fits, wear it - If I had to guess, with your VCI and WMI, you did well in school at least until (or through) High School.

Do you mind saying what you think the benefits of having a single number IQ would be to you?

Smiles,
Grinity

what does "g" loaded mean?

"Highly "g" loaded" means "highly correlated with general intelligence."

If you see a big difference between 2 scores that are both, in principle and in practice, highly correlated with the same thing, then you start looking for what is depressing the lower of the scores.