Developmental norms for the Wisconsin Card Sorting test

Abstract

While the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) has been used widely among adult populations to evaluate the effects of frontal-lobe lesions, no comparable work has been done among younger populations due, in part, to the lack of an adequate normative base. This study presents developmental norms by age for the WCST for 105 school-age children. The data indicate that, by the time children are 10 years old, their performance on the WCST is indistinguishable from that of normal adults. Examination of the acquisition curves by age for Categories Achieved, Perseverative Errors, and Failures to Maintain Set reveals developmental changes that roughly correspond with neuroanatomical changes in the brain and cognitive stages of development. The present developmental norms are intended to complement and extend existing adult norms for the WCST and to facilitate the clinical use of the WCST as a neuropsychological test in child populations.