The effects of culture on wasi test performance in ethnically diverse individuals

The objective of this study was to examine differences between fluent English-speaking ethnically diverse (ED) individuals (from Hispanic, Asian, and Middle-Eastern descent) and monolingual English-speaking Anglo-Americans (MEAA) on the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI). A sample of 86 (50 ED and 36 MEA A) healthy individuals participated. The results revealed that the MEAA group outperformed the ED group on the verbal (i.e., Vocabulary and Similarities), but not the nonverbal (i.e., Block Design and Matrix Reasoning) subtests. Various cultural factors such as the level of acculturation and the degree to which the English language was used correlated with verbal skills. Number of years the education was obtained outide of the US was an important predictor of verbal and some nonverbal peoformance in the ED group. The findings from this study underscore the importance of taking cultural factors, particularly level of acculturation, into account when interpreting test scores of ED individuals.