ASSESSMENT with the WAIS-5

Jerome M. Sattler, Kadir Samuel, and Ron Dumont

Details: 468 pages, Hardbound, 8.5 x 11

ISBN13:  979-8-9928867-0-2

Publication Date: July 2025

Assessment with the WAIS-5 is designed as both a teaching text and a reference source for students and professionals. The text provides an in-depth analysis of a major instrument useful for the cognitive assessment of older adolescents and adults. Some notable features of the text include the following:

1.  A chapter covering general guidelines for administering tests
2.  A thorough discussion of the psychometric properties of the WAIS-5
3. An in-depth presentation of each WAIS-5 subtest, including a description, rationale, factor analytic findings, reliability and correlational highlights, administrative guidelines, and interpretive suggestions
4. Guidelines for interpreting the WAIS-5 Full Scale, WAIS-5 primary index scales, and WAIS-5 ancillary index scales
5. Checklists that can be used for identifying possible vision problems, hearing problems, or brain injury problems during an assessment
6. A form for recording psychological and physical difficulties that might be observed during test administration and a parallel table explaining each psychological and physical difficulty that appears on the form
7. Guidelines for using an interpreter
8. Guidelines for administering tests to individuals with special needs, including test accommodations and test modifications
9. A chapter discussing neuropsychological assessment, including how to use the WAIS-5 as part of a neuropsychological assessment
10. A chapter covering aging and cognitive ability
11. A chapter covering a description of the major forms of dementia
12. Appendixes with confidence intervals, guidelines for interpreting WAIS-5 subtests and scales, relevant CattellHorn-Carroll abilities associated with each subtest and scale, and much more

This edition contains several learning aids. These include

• A list of major headings, together with goals and objectives, at the beginning of each chapter
• A “Thinking Through the Issues” section; a summary of each major topic; a list of key terms, each linked to the page on which it appears; and a series of study questions at the end of each chapter
• Detailed guidelines for administering each WAIS–IV subtest covering background considerations, starting considerations, reverse sequence considerations, discontinue considerations, scoring guidelines, and completion of the Record Form, as well as a checklist for recording whether each guideline was observed
• Report writing principles
• A glossary of major terms related to dementia
• Checklists for evaluating a student’s competency in administering the WAIS-5 and WAIS-5 Q-interactive

Edwin G. Boring said, “Intelligence is whatever intelligence tests measure.” Although this comment may have been facetious, it strikes a chord with the text authors. We wonder, Does the revised structure of the WAIS-5 give a more valid picture of the nature of intelligence than the former edition? The new edition will, of course, need to be investigated more extensively before a final judgment can be made about its value as a cognitive assessment instrument. Our field needs to study, in particular, how the major changes—the addition of three subtests new to this edition (Running Digits, Naming Speed Quantity, and Set Relations), the splitting of the WAIS–IV Digit Span subtest into three independent subtests (Digits Forward, Digit Sequencing, and Digits Backward), and the inclusion of two WMS–5 subtests (Symbol Span and Spatial Addition)—contribute to our understanding of the cognitive functioning of both older adolescents and adults. 

Note to instructors: An Instructor’s Manual prepared by Kadir Samuel and Ron Dumont is also available, with multiple-choice questions and PowerPoint™ presentations highlighting the main points of each chapter in Assessment with the WAIS-5.