This is an edited collection of papers that focuses on various
aspects of the most recent revision of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence
Scale (WAIS–III) and Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS–III). The
papers in this volume fall into three broad areas. The first section
of the book (and part of one of the subsequent chapters) provides an
overview of the history of the development of measures of memory and
intelligence, with particular emphasis on the Wechsler scales. These
chapters are thoroughly delightful, and the only shortcoming is that
they are too brief. Indeed, though over 100 pages are devoted to this
topic, there are a number of questions about the measures which could
have been answered but weren't. (For example, given the cost and
time pressures on psychological assessment, why were the
tests—particularly the WMS–III—lengthened? Why, for
example, include a measure of list learning when Psychological
Corporation already published the California Verbal Learning Test? Why,
after all these years, hasn't the WAIS Information subtest been
dropped or the content made less specific to the United States? What
led to the decision to include a verbally mediated measure of visual
memory on the WMS–III, a decision which can make it harder to
evaluate visual memory in aphasics?) Given how involved they were in
the revisions of the WAIS and WMS, the editors would appear to have
been uniquely positioned to provide a more in-depth discussion of the
issues that arose during this process and how these issues were
resolved.