Temporal stability of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in an untreated patient sample.

This study evaluates the temporal stability of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). The only previous similar study found unacceptably low test-retest stability in a non-patient elderly sample. In contrast, the present study utilizes 29 untreated obstructive sleep apnea patients who are more typical of persons likely to receive the WCST clinically. The 11 WCST scores examined demonstrated test-retest correlations from .34 to .83 (mean = .64). Six of 11 correlations were within .10 of the .80 criterion for clinical utility and there was minimal change across sessions. The current findings justify greater optimism regarding the test-retest reliability of the WCST.