We applied latent class analysis (LCA) to a set of neuropsychological data with the aim of corroborating the three cognitive profiles of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) described in the literature, namely: healthy, amnestic, non-amnestic, and multidomain. The ultimate purpose of the LCA was to try to find the underlying classification of MCI and related pathologies by means of the participants’ response patterns, rather than on more classical psychometric criteria, such as the standard deviation of the mean. We computed 547 neuropsychological assessments derived from 223 participants who were assessed annually for three consecutive years. The battery included tests of memory, language, executive function, and praxis. The results obtained by means of LCA, with a four-group solution and using the 40th percentile as the criterion, confirm prior classifications obtained with more questionable psychometric criteria, while providing longitudinal data on the course of MCI and the stability of group assignment over time.

Several studies question the usefulness of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV) in determining giftedness due to the importance of speed in some of its subtests, which may penalize children of high intellectual level. This study analyzes the factor structure of the WISC-IV of gifted children based on confirmatory factor analysis. Participants were eighty-seven gifted children from Spain (6–13 years old). Score discrepancies were also examined for the main indexes: Verbal Comprehension, Processing Speed, Working Memory and Perceptual Organization. Results pointed out four models with a good fit from the five models analyzed: a two-factor model according to GAI subscales (RMSEA = .001, p = .84), a four-factor first-order model including main indexes (RMSEA = .05, p = .19), a four-factor model with g as a direct factor (RMSEA = .001, p = .84) and a four-factor model with g as an indirect higher-order factor (RMSEA = .05, p = .13). Discrepancies were found between Verbal Comprehension and Processing Speed, and between Perceptual Organization and Processing Speed. Verbal Comprehension yielded the highest score, whereas the lowest scores were obtained in Processing Speed and Working Memory. These results support the use of this scale in the assessment and diagnosis of Spanish children with a high intellectual level.

Neurobehavioral theories of autism have hypothesized core deficits in sensory input or perception, basic attentional abilities or generalized attention to extrapersonal space, anterograde memory, auditory information processing, higher order memory abilities, conceptual reasoning abilities, executive function, control mechanisms of attention, and higher order abilities across domains. A neuropsychologic battery designed to investigate these hypotheses was administered to 33 rigorously diagnosed autistic individuals with IQ scores greater than 80, and 33 individually matched normal controls. Stepwise discriminant function was used to define the profile of neuropsychologic functioning across domains. The neuropsychologic profile in these autistic individuals was defined by impairments in skilled motor, complex memory, complex language, and reasoning domains, and by intact or superior performance in the attention, simple memory, simple language, and visual–spatial domains. This profile is not consistent with mental retardation or with a general deficit syndrome, but rather with a selective impairment in complex information processing that does not involve visual–spatial processing. This profile is not consistent with a single primary deficit, but with a multiple primary deficit model in which the deficit pattern within and across domains is reflective of the complexity of the information processing demands. This neuropsychologic profile is furthermore consistent with the neurophysiologic characterization of autism as a late information processing disorder with sparing of early information processing. (JINS, 1997, 3, 303–316)