Abstract
<p>The WAIS-R Performance Scale was administered to185 hearing-impaired young adults (80 females and 105 males) having a mean age of 18.6 years (SD .97). All participants were considered to have a prelingual hearing loss that ranged from moderate to profound. The five sub-tests and performance IQ (PIQ) were evaluated by t-test computations and principal factor analyses. The only significant mean score difference occurred with the Digit Symbol subtest where the female subjects outperformed their male counter parts by a mean difference of 1.76 points (t=-4.76, p < .0001). Subtest inter-correlational results suggest that adult deaf males demonstrated better spatial analysis and synthesis skills while the females performed better at visual-motor coordination and speed tasks. A principal factor analysis procedure yielded only one factor for each sex. The high degree of factorial similarity between the male and female samples indicated that the underlying construct being measured by the WAIS-R Performance subtests does not differ by gender.</p>
