Relationships Between the Booklet Category Test and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

Abstract

This study compares total errors on the Booklet Form of the Category Test (DeFilippis, McCampbell & Rogers, 1979) with several scores of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (Heaton, 1981). In a heterogeneous sample of 30 neurologically impaired patients and 31 normal individuals the two tests exhibited a maximum correlation of 0.52 when partialing out the effects of age and education. In addition, this study suggests that the two tests exhibit similar overall diagnostic hit rates; however, they differ in false negatives and false positives. These results bring into question the assumption that these two neuropsychological tests are interchangeable. A need to recognize the nature of the differences between the tests in their clinical applications and in future research is discussed.