This study aimed to identify a well-fitting and theoretically justified item-level latent factor structure for the Wechsler Memory Scales (WMS)-IV verbal paired associates (VerbalPA) subtest to facilitate the ease and accuracy of score interpretations for patients with lateralized temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).

Archival data were used from 250 heterogeneous neurosciences patients who were administered the WMS-IV as part of a standard neuropsychological assessment. Three theoretically motivated models for the latent structure of VerbalPA were tested using confirmatory factor analysis. The first model, based on cognitive principles of semantic processing from hub-and-spoke theory, tested whether performance is related to specific semantic features of target words. The second, motivated by the Cattell–Horn–Carroll (CHC) model of cognitive abilities, investigated whether the associative properties of items influence performance. A third, Hybrid model tested whether performance is related to both semantic and associative properties of items. The best-fitting model was tested for diagnostic group effects contrasting the heterogeneous neuroscience patients with subsets of left and right TLE (n = 51, n = 26, respectively) patients.

The Hybrid model was found to have the best fit. Patients with left TLE scored significantly less well than the heterogeneous neurosciences sample on selected semantic factor scores, although the effect size was small.

Future editions of the WMS may consider implementing a semantic scoring structure for the VerbalPA to facilitate test score interpretation. Additionally, these results suggest that principles of hub-and-spoke theory may be integrated into CHC cognitive ability taxonomy.

本研究旨在为 Wechsler 记忆量表 (WMS)-IV 语言配对关联 (VerbalPA) 子测试确定一个拟合良好且理论上合理的项目级潜在因素结构，以促进对颞叶偏侧患者的评分解释的简便性和准确性癫痫（TLE）。

作为标准神经心理学评估的一部分，使用了来自 250 名异质神经科学患者的档案数据，这些患者接受了 WMS-IV。使用验证性因子分析测试了三个理论上动机的 VerbalPA 潜在结构模型。第一个模型基于轮辐理论中语义处理的认知原理，测试性能是否与目标词的特定语义特征相关。第二个，受 Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) 认知能力模型的启发，调查了项目的关联属性是否影响绩效。第三个，混合模型测试性能是否与项目的语义和关联属性有关。n = 51，n = 26，分别）患者。

混合模型被发现具有最佳拟合。左侧 TLE 患者在选定的语义因素评分上的得分明显低于异质神经科学样本，尽管效果很小。

WMS 的未来版本可能会考虑为 VerbalPA 实施语义评分结构，以促进测试分数的解释。此外，这些结果表明，轮辐理论的原理可以整合到 CHC 认知能力分类中。