Wisconsin card sorting test : a new global score, with Italian norms, and its relationship with the Weigl sorting test

The Wisconsin card sorting test and the Weigl test are two neuropsychological tools widely used in clinical practice to assess frontal lobe functions. In this study we present norms useful for Italian subjects aged from 15 to 85 years, with 5-17 years of education. Concerning the Wisconsin card sorting test, a new measure of global efficiency (global score) is proposed as well as norms for some well known qualitative aspects of the performance, i.e. perseverative responses, failure to maintain the set and non-perseverative errors. In setting normative values, we followed a statistical methodology (equivalent scores) employed in Italy for other neuropsychological tests, in order to favour the possibility of comparison among these tests. A correlation study between the global score of the Wisconsin card sorting test and the score on the Weigl test was carried out and it emerges that some cognitive aspects are not overlapping in these two measures.