In this chapter, the Senior South African Individual Scales – Revised (SSAIS-R), which has played a central role in the intelligence testing of South African children since 1991, is reviewed. Despite its outdated norms it continues to be widely used, mainly because of a lack of alternatives in terms of locally normed tests. The SSAIS-R (1992) is a revised version of the Senior South African Individual Scales (SSAIS) published in 1964, and known initially as the New South African Individual Scale (NSAIS). It is based on the traditional Wechsler understanding of intelligence as a composite of related mental abilities that together represent general intelligence (g) and which can be divided into a verbal/nonverbal dichotomy (for example, Verbal Intelligence Quotient (VIQ) and Performance Intelligence Quotient (PIQ)). The purpose of the SSAIS-R is ‘to determine a testee's level of general intelligence and to evaluate the testee's relative strengths and weaknesses in certain important facets of intelligence. This differential picture of abilities is used in an educational context to predict future scholastic achievement and to obtain diagnostic and prognostic information’ (Van Eeden 1997b, p.34). It is noted in the SSAIS-R manual that the word ‘intelligence’ is used to imply ‘developed academic potential’ (Van Eeden 1997b, p.35). The test is a point scale (deviation IQ) and as such the IQ scores are scaled scores and not quotients. While this makes the term ‘IQ’ theoretically incorrect, it is generally used with reference to this test.

A key limitation of this test that needs to be acknowledged at the outset is that its standardisation sample did not include black children. Only coloured, Indian and white children were included in the original standardisation. Two later studies explored the validity of the test with a small set of black high school learners attending Model C and private schools (Van Eeden, 1993; 1997a). The findings from these studies are presented below in the discussion of the normative data for the SSAIS-R.

Description of the test

The test comprises nine core subtests (five verbal, four nonverbal) and two additional tests (one verbal, one nonverbal), which are described in Table 4.1. Reasonably generous time limits are set for the Number Problems, Block Designs, Pattern Completion, Missing Parts and Form Board subtests of the Performance scale, enabling the measurement of both power and speed.