P.vychology
in
fke
Schools
Volume
21.
January.
1984
A COMPARISON OF THE PPVT-R AND WISC-R WITH
RURAL CHILDREN REFERRED FOR ASSESSMENT
CONSTANCE L. HOLLINGER AND PATRICIA H.
SARVIS
Cleveland State Universily
The present study investigated the relationship between the Revised Peabody Picture
Vocabulary Test (PPVT-R) and the WISC-R
for
a naturally occurring sample
of
rural children referred for assessment
(N=53).
The results indicated that the PPVT-R
was highly correlated with WISC-R scale and subtest scores. Examination of a sub-
sample
of
developmentally handicapped students revealed substantial reduction in
correlational relationships as a function
of
reduced sample size and restricted range
of
general ability. While the PPVT-R was found to underestimate all three WISC-R
scale scores, the discrepancy between the PPVT-R standard scores and the WISC-R
Performance Scale score was the only statistically significant underestimation.
Results are discussed in terms
of
prior research findings and implications
for
inter-
pretation.
Since its introduction in 1959, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) (Dunn,
1959) has been widely used as a measure of verbal comprehension and has been found to
correlate moderately well with verbal scales of individually administered intelligence
tests (Anastasi, 1976). A review of the research literature reveals significant correlation
coefficients
for
the PPVT with WISC-R Verbal IQ scores, with nonsignificant
relationships emerging between the PPVT and WISC-R Performance IQs (Covin, 1976;
Vance, Prichard,
&
Wallbrown, 1978). However, significant differences have been found
between mean PPVT standard scores and both the mean Stanford-Binet and Wechsler
IQs (Gensemer, Walker,
&
Cadman, 1976; Ritter, Duffy,
&
Fischman, 1974), with the
PPVT found to overestimate the ability
of
EMR students, as measured by the WISC-
R,by as many as 12 IQ points (Covin, 1976; Hodapp
&
Hodapp, 1980; Vance, Prichard,
8c
Wallbrown, 1978). It has been suggested that one explanation for the observed
difference between the PPVT and intelligence test scores is the fact that the PPVT’s stan-
dardization sample was old and quite limited in terms of representativeness (Naglieri,
1981).
Given the recency of the introduction
of
the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-
Revised (PPVT-R) (Dunn
&
Dunn, 1981), the research literature on the PPVT-R is
rather limited, with evaluations
of
the PPVT-R’s validity resting onthe similarities
between the PPVT-R and its predecessor and the existing validation studies conducted
on the PPVT (Anastasi, 1981; Sattler, 1982). Substantial differences between the PPVT-
R and its predecessor have been documented, however. Prasse and Bracken (198 1) have
found that, contrary to the overestimationcharacteristic of the PPVT, the PPVT-R un-
derestimated WISC-R Full Scale IQ scores by approximately
5
points
for
an urban
EMR sample. Further, significant differences were found between PPVT-R standard
scores and WISC-R Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQs. With the exception of the
Picture Completion subtest, neither WISC-R subtests nor scale scores were found
to
cor-
relate significantly with the PPVT-R.
Such findings not only contradict findings in the research literature on the PPVT but
also contradict findings reported by Naglieri (198 1)
for
a randomly selected sample of 26
Requests for reprints should be sent to Constance
L.
Hollinger, College
of
Arts
&
Sciences, Dept.
of
Psychology, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH
441
15.
97