Performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test Among Adolescents in Taiwan: Norms, Factorial Structure, and Relation to Schizotypy

• Published in: Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 69 - 79
• Main Authors: Lin, Chaucer C.H., Chen, Wei J., Yang, Hao-Jan, Hsiao, Chuhsing K., Tien, Allen Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Colchester Taylor & Francis Group 01.02.2000; Taylor & Francis
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Developmental psychology; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychometrics; Reproducibility of Results; Risk Factors; Schizophrenia - diagnosis; Schizophrenic Psychology; Schizotypal Personality Disorder - diagnosis; Schizotypal Personality Disorder - psychology; Taiwan; Asia; Taiwan; Human; Executive function; Factor analysis; Neuropsychological test; Schizophrenia; Psychometrics; Cognition; Vulnerability; Personality disorder; Standards; Test validation; Schizotypal personality; Wisconsin Card Sorting Test; Adolescent; Cognitive development
• ISSN: 1380-3395; 1744-411X
• DOI: 10.1076/1380-3395(200002)22:1;1-8;FT069

The aims of this study were to assess developmental trends in performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) among 817 randomly selected adolescents aged 13-15 years, and to explore WCST performance factor structure and relationship to schizotypy. The results showed that of the nine WCST indexes, only the Categories Achieved and Failure to Maintain Set scores were associated with age, and only the Learning to Learn scores reached adult levels. Factor analysis of WCST performance scores yielded a three-factor structure. Psychometrically defined schizotypic subjects did not perform significantly worse than control subjects on any WCST indexes. These findings suggest that performance on various WCST indexes might indicate developmental changes at different ages, and deficits in WCST performance might not be sensitive indicators of vulnerability to schizophrenia in adolescence.