Wisconsin card sorting test

[David McFarlane]

After casting about far & wide, I found a complete set of WCST 
materials right here at my own institution.  So I am all set there 
now, my thanks to everyone who replied.

Now I need to finish this project and submit it to STEP.  I will 
probably do this in stages.  As stated earlier, programming the basic 
control logic for merely administering the test is the easy part, and 
I have that worked out already with a mere text-only 
keyboard-response model.  Adding the graphics and improving the 
response methods will take a little more tedious work.  I might 
submit a first draft once I get that far.

Then the hard work comes when I add computation of all the customary 
raw WCST scores.  With that accomplished I would consider the project 
finished -- I have no hope of going the extra yard to have it convert 
raw summary scores into demographically corrected normed scores, for 
that users will need to consult the Wisconsion Card Sorting Test 
Manual, Revised and Expanded, by Robert K. Heaton et al. (1993), 
Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc., Lutz, Florida, USA, or use 
WCST scoring software.

-- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder


At 8/31/2010 05:31 PM Tuesday, David McFarlane wrote:
>Oh, forgot to say, if interested then please contact me directly by 
>e-mail (off the list).
>
>Thanks,
>David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder
>
>
>>For those of you who might not read beyond the first line:  I will 
>>write a professional quality WCST in EP for no charge, if I can 
>>only get a bit of help.  Read on if interested...
>>
>>Well, despite the reservations I expressed earlier, on my own time 
>>I went ahead and threw together a working skeleton in EP for the 
>>WCST, just to flex my E-Prime muscles.  The basic control logic is 
>>really quite simple, and with a couple of tricks (e.g., nested 
>>attribute references) the E-Prime design is rather sleek.
>>
>>I would like to complete this project to my usual professional 
>>standards and then submit it for inclusion in the public STEP 
>>library so that everyone can use it.  In short, I aim to make this 
>>no less than a completely faithful computerized replica of the 
>>standardized test, in EP.  But to do that I will need many more 
>>specific details on the mechanics of the standardized test.  E.g., 
>>I have been told that the standardized test presents the "response" 
>>cards in the same pre-ordained sequence for each run, and I need to 
>>know that sequence.  Also, if I can get hold of the scoring rules 
>>then I might even have a whack at that, although I think it enough 
>>just to have the program administer the test & record raw 
>>data.  (It would also be nice if I could get someone else to do the 
>>card graphics, as I am lousy at graphics -- I would need only 16 
>>image files, not all 64, since I know how to make EP change the 
>>colors.)  I should be able to learn all I need from the official 
>>WCST Manual, with perhaps a look at a printed card deck.  But a 
>>manual costs $115, and a card deck $170, more than I care to spend 
>>for something that is, for me at least, only a hobby project.
>>
>>So here's the deal:  If any of you can help me get access to 
>>materials that fully specify the mechanics of the test (ideally the 
>>printed Manual and/or cards) then I will complete this project in 
>>short order and you will all have a professional quality WCST in EP.
>>
>>-- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder
>>
>>
>>At 8/23/2010 05:24 PM Monday, David McFarlane wrote:
>>>Well, I toyed with the idea of making a simple WCST in E-Prime 
>>>just to amuse myself.  But when I looked into it further, I got puzzled.
>>>
>>>The WCST started off with simple printed materials administered 
>>>manually by a human examiner.  Clearly the WCST does not require 
>>>millisecond precision.  So if we simply want to automate it, why 
>>>use such an expensive, specialized, and heavyweight platform as 
>>>E-Prime?  Wouldn't it make more sense to use some more common 
>>>platform such as JavaScript, or Flash, or Python, or even straight 
>>>Visual Basic?  Note that the WCST was automated using simple Turbo 
>>>Basic (for DOS?) as far back as 1996.  Isn't this another case of, 
>>>"When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a 
>>>nail"  Or, insofar as I have not kept up with the literature on 
>>>the WCST, am I just missing something that is obvious to the rest of you?
>>>
>>>Also, apparently scoring the test is quite complex (perseverative 
>>>errors, nonperseverative errors, etc.), so building that into the 
>>>program (as opposed to leaving that to later data analysis) would 
>>>take some care.
>>>
>>>Finally, did anyone else know that the term "Wisconsin Card 
>>>Sorting Test" was trademarked by Wells Printing and Digital 
>>>Services of Madison, Wisconsin, USA (see 
>>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_card_sort )?  So we cannot 
>>>give the name "Wisconsin Card Sorting Test" to any printed 
>>>materials that we produce, but since the trademark does not cover 
>>>computerized versions we may continue to use the name "Wisconsin 
>>>Card Sorting Test" for our computerized versions.
>>>
>>>With all that said, note that someone did make an automated WCST 
>>>demo for Inquisit's Millisecond 
>>>(http://www.millisecond.com/download/samples/v3/CardSort ), though 
>>>I do not know what data it stores or how it handles the test scoring.
>>>
>>>-- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder
>>>
>>>
>>>At 8/20/2010 12:10 PM Friday, David McFarlane wrote:
>>>>As far as I can tell no one has made an E-Prime WCST available on 
>>>>the Web.  It would be quite interesting to make one.  As I 
>>>>recall, in essence the task involves operantly rewarding the 
>>>>subject for correctly following an undisclosed rule, changing the 
>>>>rule whenever the subject achieves an overall success criterion, 
>>>>and seeing how well the subject can adapt to the changing 
>>>>rules.  This would require some interesting code in E-Prime, in 
>>>>particular scoring the success rate and then changing the 
>>>>"correct" rule on the fly, but it could be done.  Wish I had the 
>>>>liberty to do it myself.
>>>>
>>>>-- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder

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