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ALSPAC – Age 4 – WPPSI-RUK Block Design

The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) assessed their cohort members (CMs) at 49 months’ age (Children in Focus Clinic) using the Block Design measure from the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence Revised (WPPSI-RUK).

Details on this measure and the data collected from the CMs are outlined in the table below.


Year of data collection:1996-1997
Domain:Non-verbal ability
Measures:Planning
Spatial visualisation
Visual motor coordination
Simultaneous processing
Synthesis (part-whole relationships)
Non-verbal concept formation
CHC:Gf (Fluid intelligence)
Gs (Processing speed)
Gv (Visual processing)
CLOSER Source:Explore this sweep in CLOSER Discovery: ALSPAC Early Years (13 months to 4 years 11 months) (opens in a new tab)
Administration method:Trained interviewer; clinical setting; physical task
Procedure:The child was presented with an image or model that depicted a pattern, and was tasked with recreating the pattern with one- and two-colour blocks (white and red). The test contained 14 designs, and the child was allowed two attempts at each design. Points were awarded for completion, and bonus points were awarded based on time.
Link to questionnaire:http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/researchers/our-data/clinical-measures/ (opens in new tab)
Scoring:Standardised score (M = 10, SD = 3)
Item-level variable(s):Not readily available
Total score/derived variable(s):cf803
Explore this variable in Discovery: ALSPAC Children in Focus 4Mth-61Mth Clinics Dataset (opens in a new tab)
Descriptives:Raw score
N = 1,013
Range = 3 - 19
Mean = 11.45
SD = 2.95
(click image to enlarge)
Age of participants (weeks):Mean = 212.39 weeks, SD = 1.63, Range = 207 - 221
Other sweep and/or cohort:ALSPAC - Age 8.5 - WISC-III Block Design
MCS - Age 5 - BAS II Pattern Construction
MCS - Age 7 - BAS II Pattern Construction
Source:Wechsler, D. (1989). Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised. WPPSI-R. Psychological Corporation.
Technical resources:Kaufman, A. S., & Lichtenberger, E. O. (2000). Essentials of WISC-III and WPPSI-R Assessment. John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Example articles:Bornstein, M. H., Hahn, C. S., Bell, C., Haynes, O. M., Slater, A., Golding, J., ... & ALSPAC Study Team. (2006). Stability in cognition across early childhood: A developmental cascade. Psychological Science, 17(2), 151-158.
Taylor, C. M., Kordas, K., Golding, J., & Emond, A. M. (2017). Data relating to prenatal lead exposure and child IQ at 4 and 8 years old in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Neurotoxicology, 62, 224-230.

For the named item in the table above, a link is provided to the corresponding CLOSER Discovery content.


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This page is part of CLOSER’s ‘A guide to the cognitive measures in five British birth cohort studies’.