Abstract

As a pilot study for the development of the Korean version of WISC-III (Korean Wechsler Scale for Children), 221 children(109 boys & 112 girls) from 6 to 16 years-of-age were tested with the revised WISC-III version. The sample population was collected from the northern and southern regions of South Korea; Seoul and cities within the Kyungsang province. The translated version of the WISC-III test contained culturally relevant replacement items within the subtests of 'Picture Completion', 'Information', 'Similarities', 'Arithmetic', 'Vocabulary' and 'Comprehension'. Results indicated the interscorer reliability coefficients measured by two independent scorers were satisfactory on 'Similarities', 'Vocabulary' and 'Comprehension' (.86-.95). The reliabilities of subtests measured by Cronbach Alpha were also high (.73-.95). Factor analyses revealed four factors; Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Organization, Freedom from distractibility and Processing Speed. The correlation of these four factors were high suggesting the general factor of IQ. The pilot study did not reveal any differences in test scores according to the child's gender. It did, however, suggest the existence of regional differences. A large scale standardization study will be performed to further consider the implications of the pilot, as well as to develop the IQ norms and other validity studies for Korean WISC-III.