ALSPAC – Age 8.5 – Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III) Object Assembly

The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) assessed their cohort members (CMs) during the study’s age 8.5 sweep (Focus@8) using the Object Assembly measure from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III).

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

Years of data collection:	1999-2001
Domain:	Non-verbal reasoning
Measures:	Spatial visualization
	Non-verbal reasoning
	Simultaneous processing
	Visual-motor coordination
	Dexterity
	Non-verbal concept formation
CHC:	Gf (Fluid intelligence)
	Gs (Processing speed)
CLOSER Source:	Explore this sweep in CLOSER Discovery: ALSPAC Childhood (5 years to 12 years 11 months) (opens in a new tab)
Administration method:	Trained interviewer; clinical setting; physical task
Procedure:	The child was presented with the pieces of a puzzle in a standard arrangement and was instructed to fit the pieces together to form a meaningful whole within 90 seconds. A total of six trials were administered. The examiner demonstrated using a sample puzzle before the test began. On the first puzzle, the examiner demonstrated the correct arrangement if the child failed to complete, however no second trial was given.
Link to questionnaire:	http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/researchers/our-data/clinical-measures/ (opens in new tab)
Scoring:	Scores consist of the correct number of junctures (where two pieces join), with bonus points added for correctly completed trials. Raw scores are converted into scale scores using tables provided in the WISC manual (M = 10, SD = 3).
Item-level variable(s):	Not readily available
Total score/derived variable(s):	f8ws030 – f8ws060 Explore these variables in CLOSER Discovery: ALSPAC Focus at 8 Clinic Dataset (opens in a new tab)
Descriptives:	Raw score	Scaled score
	N = 6,983	N = 6,984
	Range = 0 – 44	Range = 1 – 19
	Mean = 23.96	Mean = 9.98
	SD = 8.40	SD = 3.77
	(click image to enlarge)	(click image to enlarge)
Age of participants (months):	Mean = 103.82 months, SD = 3.92, Range = 89 – 127
Other sweep and/or cohort:	ALSPAC – Age 4 – WPPSI-RUK Object Assembly
Source:	Wechsler, D. (1991). WISC-III: Wechsler intelligence scale for children: Manual. 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:	Horwood, J., Salvi, G., Thomas, K., Duffy, L., Gunnell, D., Hollis, C., … & Zammit, S. (2008). IQ and non-clinical psychotic symptoms in 12-year-olds: results from the ALSPAC birth cohort. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 193(3), 185-191.
	Northstone, K., Joinson, C., Emmett, P., Ness, A., & Paus, T. (2012). Are dietary patterns in childhood associated with IQ at 8 years of age? A population-based cohort study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 66(7), 624-628.

For the named items in the table above, links are provided to their corresponding content on CLOSER Discovery. Where a variable range is provided, full variable lists can be accessed through the ‘Variable Groups’ tab on the linked Discovery page.