What the Visual Spatial Index scores and how to get one without blocks

0 The short answer

The Visual Spatial Index (VSI) is a composite standard score that Pearson builds from only two subtests, Block Design and Visual Puzzles, on both the WISC-V (2014) and the WAIS-5 (2024), and it exists because the Wechsler scales split the old Perceptual Reasoning Index into separate visual spatial and fluid reasoning scores. A VSI describes how a person performed on those two tasks against same age peers on a scale with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, and Pearson's WAIS-5 sample report prints it with a 14 point confidence interval, so it should be read as a band beside the Full Scale IQ and not as a verdict. An adult can obtain a Wechsler VSI from a psychologist who has the blocks, or a normed online VSI from ACIS, which builds its index from Visual Puzzles, Layer Rotation and Spatial Comprehension on the Full Scale form (50 dollars, about 175 minutes) or in a Custom Test of those three subtests (15 dollars), with prices read October 29, 2026. The decisive limit is that an online, unsupervised, English only index is not a clinical or diagnostic result, and an ACIS VSI is not a WAIS-5 VSI.

1 What is the Visual Spatial Index?

The Visual Spatial Index is a summary score for a person's performance on a small set of visual spatial subtests, and the word "index" marks it as a composite built from scaled scores, not the result of one test. An index is made by adding the scaled scores of its subtests and converting the sum to a standard score with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. The page on how IQ scores are normed explains the conversion, and the page on why the standard deviation is 15 explains the units. Because the number is a conversion of a sum, it is never the average of two percentiles, and it carries the error of every task that went into it.

The ability behind the label is visual processing, abbreviated Gv in the Cattell-Horn-Carroll model. Riverside Insights, which publishes the Woodcock-Johnson V, defines Gv in its description of the cognitive battery, read October 29, 2026, as the ability to perceive, analyze, synthesize and think with visual patterns. The same document names visualization (Vz), the ability to perceive complex patterns and mentally simulate how they might look when transformed, as the core Gv ability. The guide to spatial intelligence covers the ability itself, how it is tested and how it is trained. This page stays on the index as a score: what it combines, how it is reported and what a reader can and cannot conclude from it.

Keeping the two apart matters because a name can promise more than a score delivers. Pearson's WAIS-5 overview brochure, read October 29, 2026, lists visual spatial as one of five cognitive domains of the test, and its test framework shows the primary Visual Spatial index scale holding two subtests. The domain is a broad idea, and the index is a narrow sample of it. A person who reads "Visual Spatial Index 103" on a report is reading how two tasks went, expressed against people of the same age who took them.

The label is also not the property of one design. The Cattell-Horn-Carroll model is a framework that several publishers follow, and each decides which tasks stand for each broad ability. The page on the six cognitive domains shows how a battery spreads its subtests across them. The same three words can therefore sit on an index built from two subtests at one publisher and from three at another, which is why the subtest list behind any index is the first thing to read.

2 Which subtests build the VSI on the WISC-V and the WAIS-5?

On both Wechsler scales the primary Visual Spatial Index adds exactly two scaled scores, Block Design and Visual Puzzles, and the publisher does not allow a substitute for either. Pearson's brochure prints the pairing under the WAIS-5 primary index scales. For the WISC-V, Canivez, Watkins and Dombrowski describe the design in Psychological Assessment in 2017: seven primary subtests produce the Full Scale IQ, Block Design among them, and three additional primary subtests, Visual Puzzles among them, complete five index scores of two subtests each. The table sets the two editions side by side.

Sources: Pearson WISC-V and WAIS-5 product pages, the WAIS-5 overview brochure and Pearson's "Telepractice and the WAIS-5" guidance, read October 29, 2026.

The two tasks are different in kind. Block Design asks the examinee to re-create a design with blocks, and Pearson sells a standard set of nine blocks for the WAIS-5 on its product page, read the same day. Visual Puzzles shows a completed figure and asks which pieces would make it, entirely on paper or screen. Pearson's page says the cognitive processes in Visual Puzzles, unlike Block Design, do not involve visual-motor integration or trial-and-error problem solving with feedback, and that Visual Puzzles may place slightly greater demands on mental rotation. The ACIS page on the Block Design test explains the construction task in depth, and the page on all 20 WAIS-5 subtests follows each Wechsler subtest to the index it feeds. This page never reproduces an item from either test.

Two facts about the subtests shape the index. The first is that the pair is fixed: Pearson's product page says that substitution is not allowed for any primary or ancillary index except the Nonmotor Index, so a VSI exists only when both subtests were validly given. The second is that the two do not carry equal weight elsewhere in the battery. Pearson's telepractice guidance, read October 29, 2026, counts Block Design among the seven core subtests that produce the Full Scale IQ and says Visual Puzzles can be substituted for it, which means Visual Puzzles feeds the VSI and sits outside the core seven.

Pearson also publishes an Expanded Visual Spatial Index (EVSI) among the WAIS-5 ancillary scores. The brochure names it without listing its parts, and the telepractice guidance says the EVSI is not available when Spatial Addition is not given, so it draws on a subtest that the brochure files under working memory. This page does not describe how the EVSI is built because the documents opened do not say.

3 Where did the VSI come from, and why did it leave the Perceptual Reasoning Index?

The Visual Spatial Index is recent: it exists because the Wechsler batteries stopped treating visual spatial ability and fluid reasoning as one score, first for children in 2014 and then for adults in 2024. Before that, the adult batteries reported a single Perceptual Reasoning Index, which the page on the Perceptual Reasoning Index describes and the page on what changed between the WAIS-IV and the WAIS-5 follows into the adult transition.

The idea was tried in research first. Weiss, Keith, Zhu and Chen compared four and five factor models of the WAIS-IV in the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment in 2013 on the test's sample of 1,800 normative adults and 411 clinical adults. Their abstract reports that the five factor model fit better and that the Perceptual Reasoning Index differentiated into a visual composite of Block Design, Visual Puzzles and Picture Completion and a fluid reasoning composite of Matrix Reasoning, Arithmetic and Figure Weights. That was a research finding about a published test, not a score the WAIS-IV printed.

The publisher made the change with the child battery. Canivez and colleagues state that one major revision goal of the WISC-V was to divide the former Perceptual Reasoning factor into distinct Visual Spatial and Fluid Reasoning factors. Pearson's WISC-V page, read October 29, 2026, lists a 2014 publication date and says that when more fluid reasoning and visual spatial subtests were present, the Perceptual Reasoning factor split into the two. It also says separating the two index scores results in greater interpretive clarity. The adult scale followed ten years later, and the WAIS-5 product page, read the same day, lists a 2024 publication date and describes separate Visual Spatial and Fluid Reasoning index scores among the changes in test structure.

Whether the split holds in the data is disputed, and that dispute belongs to the page on the Fluid Reasoning Index, which sets out the studies on both sides. One finding matters for how the VSI is read, so it is stated here once. Canivez, Watkins, McGill and Dombrowski analyzed the 20 WAIS-5 subtests of the 2,020 person standardization sample in Assessment, published online in 2026, and their abstract reports that the analyses did not support five factors with separate Visual Spatial and Fluid Reasoning factors. They found a four factor model dominated by general intelligence instead, and concluded that primary, if not exclusive, interpretation of the Full Scale IQ is supported. The publisher's view is that the separation gives greater clarity. The independent authors' view is that the evidence for a distinct visual spatial factor is weak. A reader does not have to settle that argument to use a VSI sensibly: the score is a record of two spatial tasks, and it is safest to read it beside the Full Scale IQ.

4 How is a Visual Spatial Index score calculated and reported?

A Visual Spatial Index is the sum of its two subtests' scaled scores converted to a standard score, and a well built report prints that score with a percentile, a 95 percent confidence interval and a standard error. Each subtest is first converted to a scaled score. The two scaled scores are added, and a conversion table turns the sum into the index.

Pearson's WAIS-5 sample score report, dated September 16, 2024 and read October 29, 2026, shows the sequence for a sample examinee. Block Design is printed with a total raw score of 31, a scaled score of 11 and a percentile rank of 63. Visual Puzzles has a raw score of 11, a scaled score of 10 and a percentile rank of 50. The sum of scaled scores is 21, and the Visual Spatial Index is printed as 103, at the 58th percentile, with a 95 percent confidence interval of 96 to 110, the descriptor Average and a standard error of measurement of 4.74. That is a publisher's sample for one examinee, not a norm and not a typical person, and it is useful only to show how the pieces of a report fit together.

Four details of that report matter for anyone reading a VSI.

• The index is not an average. The two subtest percentiles, 63 and 50, average to 56.5 (our arithmetic), while the index prints 58, because scaled scores and percentiles live on different scales. The page on why you cannot average an IQ score and a percentile explains the error.
• The interval is wide. The band from 96 to 110 spans 14 points (our arithmetic), and the standard error of 4.74 is larger than the 3.00 printed for the Fluid Reasoning Index in the same report. A two subtest index is a band, not a point, and this one is a wider band than its neighbor.
• The reference group matters. Next to the scaled score the report prints a second column, labeled reference group scaled score, which Pearson says is based on examinees ages 20 to 34. For the same performance, Block Design shows 11 in one column and 8 in the other, and Visual Puzzles shows 10 and 7. Neither is wrong. They answer different questions about who the comparison group is.
• Block Design comes with process scores. The sample report also prints a Block Design score without time bonus, a partial score, and counts of dimension and rotation errors. For the child scale, Pearson's WISC-V page explains why the timed scoring stays on the main score: it says that removing the time bonuses would cost the subtest its ceiling, much of its reliability and part of its correlation with general intelligence. The process scores exist because one Block Design number blends accuracy, speed and the kind of error.

The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, APA and NCME, 2014) ask for exactly this transparency. Standard 2.3 says that for each total score, subscore or combination of scores that is to be interpreted, estimates of relevant indices of reliability and precision should be reported, and its comment says it is not sufficient to report them only for total scores when subscores are also interpreted. Standard 5.1 says test users should receive clear explanations of the characteristics, meaning and intended interpretation of scale scores, and of their limitations. The page on reliability and validity explains the terms.

5 What does a given VSI score mean?

A Visual Spatial Index on the mean 100, standard deviation 15 scale describes where a person falls among same age peers on the two tasks that built it, and the percentile follows from the normal curve. An index of 100 is the median of the reference group, 115 is one standard deviation above it, and 85 is one below. Because the scale is a normal curve, those points translate into fixed percentiles.

Our arithmetic on the normal curve for a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15; the 103 row matches the percentile Pearson prints.

The IQ percentile calculator converts any score, and any score can be placed on the same normal curve. The question that people type, "what is the visual spatial index score range," has two answers. The scale is defined by its mean and standard deviation, and no index has a theoretical limit. The lowest and highest values a given test can print are set by its norm tables and listed in its manual, and this page quotes no floor or ceiling for any publisher. A reader aiming at the top of the scale should read the page on tests built to measure above the usual ceiling before choosing an instrument.

Descriptors are a publisher's choice. Pearson's sample report labels the VSI of 103 as Average and a Verbal Comprehension Index of 124 as Very high, and another publisher can use different words for the same numbers. The number and its interval are the stable part of a report.

6 What can a high or low VSI say, and what can it not say?

A high or low Visual Spatial Index says that the person did better or worse than same age peers on two particular spatial tasks on one occasion, and it cannot say why, how stable the difference is or what the person will do in a job. The two tasks differ in what they ask. Block Design involves visual-motor integration and trial and error with feedback, and Visual Puzzles does not, according to Pearson's WAIS-5 page. A VSI therefore averages a construction task and a mental assembly task. A low result can come from either one, and the index alone does not say which.

What a low result can reflect is wider than ability. A lapse on one of two subtests moves half of the index, fatigue and distraction lower timed work, and an unfamiliar response format can cost points that have nothing to do with the construct. Those are readings of how a two subtest composite behaves, not measured effects, and they are the reason a surprising VSI deserves a second look at the subtest scores behind it before any conclusion. A reader with a low spatial result and a high result elsewhere has an uneven profile, and the next section explains how to judge whether the unevenness is more than noise. It is not a diagnosis.

Group research does link spatial ability with later outcomes, and it is worth knowing what it did and did not measure. Wai, Lubinski and Benbow reported in the Journal of Educational Psychology in 2009 on a stratified random sample of U.S. high schools of roughly 400,000 students tracked for 11 years. Their abstract says spatial ability assessed during adolescence has surfaced as a salient attribute among those who later achieve advanced credentials and occupations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Kell, Lubinski, Benbow and Steiger followed 563 intellectually talented 13 year olds for more than 30 years in Psychological Science in 2013. Their abstract reports that the SAT subtests accounted for 10.8 percent of the variance in patents and refereed publications and that adding spatial ability accounted for an additional 7.6 percent. Both studies used their own spatial ability tests, not a Wechsler VSI. Both describe groups, not the person reading this page, and the second sample was selected for high ability.

Spatial skill is also not fixed. Uttal and colleagues meta-analyzed 217 studies of spatial training in Psychological Bulletin in 2013 and report an average effect size (Hedges's g) of 0.47 for training relative to control, with effects that were stable over time and transferred to untrained spatial tasks. A VSI is a snapshot of performance, not a measure of a ceiling. The page on taking a spatial IQ test covers what spatial ability predicts, how it is trained and what a retake shows, and the page on the IQ test for engineers explains why a math score alone misses the spatial side of technical work.

7 How should you read the VSI beside the other indexes?

A VSI should be read against the person's own other indexes and the Full Scale IQ, and a gap between two indexes must clear measurement error before it deserves a story. The Standards say so directly. Standard 2.4 states that when a score interpretation emphasizes differences between two observed scores of an individual, reliability and precision data, including standard errors, should be provided for those differences. Standard 1.14 asks for the rationale and evidence behind any interpretation of subscores, score differences or profiles, and its comment adds that evidence for the validity of two separate scores would not necessarily justify interpreting the difference between them.

Pearson's sample report shows what that looks like. Its index level comparisons set each index against the mean of the five (107.4 for the sample), and the VSI of 103 sits 4.4 points below that mean, against a printed critical value of 10.79, with a base rate above 25 percent. The report flags the Verbal Comprehension Index as a strength and the Working Memory Index as a weakness, and the VSI receives neither flag. The pairwise table is more informative for this page.

Source: Pearson WAIS-5 sample score report, dated September 16, 2024, read October 29, 2026. One fictional examinee, not a rule for anyone else.

The logic behind a critical value is simple, and the sample lets us check it. Multiplying 1.96 by the square root of the sum of the two squared standard errors gives about 10.99 for the VSI and FRI pair (4.74 and 3.00), 12.81 for the VSI and WMI pair (4.74 and 4.50), and 14.39 for the VSI and PSI pair (4.74 and 5.61). That is our arithmetic on the printed standard errors, and it reproduces the printed values to two decimals, which shows where the thresholds come from. It also explains why a pair that includes the VSI needs a bigger gap than a pair of two lower error indexes: the VSI carries a larger standard error than the FRI, so a 5 point gap between the VSI and another index is ordinary noise. The page on index score differences shows how often ordinary profiles contain large gaps once every pair is compared.

Reading the VSI beside its neighbors also means asking what else a result could reflect. The page on the General Ability Index explains a composite that sets working memory and processing speed aside, which matters when those domains pull a profile in another direction. The page on the Working Memory Index covers a domain that Pearson's brochure describes as including auditory, visual and spatial tasks, and the ACIS test of processing speed covers the speed side, which matters because spatial subtests are timed. Group findings about how indexes relate never diagnose an individual.

8 Is a Visual Spatial Index the same as a spatial test score?

No: a Visual Spatial Index is a composite from one publisher's pair of subtests, and it differs from a single subtest score, from a stand alone rotation test and from another publisher's visual processing cluster, even when the labels overlap. Readers meet the term in all of these forms, and mixing them is the commonest way to misread a number.

Sources: Pearson WAIS-5 product page, the Riverside Insights Woodcock-Johnson V description and the ACIS technical manual, read October 29, 2026.

The Woodcock-Johnson row shows how a name can sit on different contents. Riverside's description lists a Visual Processing (Gv) cluster to which a test of fitting puzzle pieces and a test of matching block figures contribute. Both are rotation tasks, and neither is Block Design. A cluster score from that battery and a VSI from a Wechsler battery are both honest summaries of visual processing, and they are not interchangeable numbers.

The single task row matters just as much for readers who have taken a rotation test online. The page on the Mental Rotation Test compares the 24 item version with the free versions that circulate, and what any of them returns is the result of one format. It does not return an index, because an index needs a battery of tasks with a stated reference group. The page on nonverbal IQ tests explains where nonverbal composites fit and what they leave out, and the page on the TONI-4 test covers a separate nonverbal instrument whose scores belong to that instrument and not to a Wechsler style VSI.

Block Design deserves its own sentence, because it is the reason a Wechsler VSI is hard to obtain outside an office. Pearson's block table for the WISC-V Integrated, published with the WISC-V materials and read October 29, 2026, lists a Nonmotor Visual Spatial Index that uses a multiple choice version of Block Design in place of the blocks when no blocks can be used. That is Pearson's own acknowledgment that the motor demand of the original task is part of the problem, and it is also a different score from the standard VSI.

9 How can an adult get a normed Visual Spatial Index?

An adult gets a normed Visual Spatial Index only from a battery that has a norm group and reports the index with an interval, which means a psychologist's Wechsler battery or a published online battery, and a single puzzle or a free quiz does not supply one unless it states a norm group. The table compares the real options on what each reports for visual spatial ability, who it is normed against, whether it is supervised, how long it takes and what it costs, with facts and prices read on October 29, 2026.

Sources: Pearson WAIS-5 overview brochure, Pearson's "Telepractice and the WAIS-5" guidance, Riverside Insights Woodcock-Johnson V description, and the ACIS pricing and technical manual, read October 29, 2026. Prices can change.

Three points make the table usable. The WAIS-5 row is the benchmark for this index because the VSI is Pearson's construction, and the clinician gives it for a clinical or legal question. The page on where to take an IQ test lays out the in person and online routes. The second row is the one most readers do not expect: Pearson's own guidance says Block Design is not feasible for telepractice without a professional facilitator and that the VSI cannot then be derived. The documents opened describe no way to derive a Wechsler VSI without Block Design. A normed online spatial index has to come from a battery that was built to be taken on a screen.

The ACIS rows are for that case. The timed ceiling in the Custom Test row is our arithmetic on the per item limits in the technical manual: 7 puzzles at 20 seconds and 18 at 45 seconds for Visual Puzzles, 30 items at 45 seconds for Layer Rotation, and a 25 minute total for Spatial Comprehension add up to about 63 minutes if every item used its full time and no discontinue rule applied. It is not a statement of how long a typical sitting takes, and it leaves out instructions and breaks. The page on IQ tests for adults explains what to look for before paying for any of these. The question to ask of every product is the one this page began with: which subtests build the spatial score, what is it normed against, and does the report print an interval.

10 What does the ACIS Visual Spatial Index contain?

The ACIS Visual Spatial Index is built from three subtests, not two, and none of them uses blocks: Visual Puzzles, Layer Rotation and Spatial Comprehension, which the technical manual places in Gv. The manual, read October 29, 2026, names the narrow abilities and the task format of each one.

The three tasks spread the demand across formats. The Visual Puzzles subtest samples mental assembly of parts into a whole, the Layer Rotation subtest samples rotation and figural integration with the layers always in view, and the Spatial Comprehension subtest samples imagery and viewpoint transformation. The manual says Layer Rotation carries no words at all, which also lets it feed the Nonverbal Index. Spatial Comprehension is different: it uses a knowledge sheet and typed numeric answers, so the index is not free of language, and the manual notes that verbal and knowledge tasks are affected by English proficiency and educational exposure. Each ACIS page describes its task family and never an item.

Which forms report the index differs, and the manual says so. Its form table marks the VSI as not available on Quick, partial on Optimized and complete on the Full Scale form. The report script that builds the example reports, read the same day, forms the Optimized VSI from Spatial Comprehension and Layer Rotation. The Custom Test returns a domain's full index when the domain is completed, so choosing the three spatial subtests at 5 dollars each returns the complete VSI for 15 dollars. The report states that an index is shown only for the exact set of subtests defined for it, and that a loose subtest keeps its scaled score and percentile without moving any index. The free trial, which needs no card, lets a reader see the interface before paying, and the VSI itself comes from a paid form or the Custom Test.

The technical manual lists composites that rearrange the same subtests. The Complete Visual Spatial Index, CVSI, combines Layer Rotation, Visual Puzzles, Spatial Comprehension and Visual Sequence and is described as expanded visual spatial coverage beyond the primary VSI. Visual Sequence is a working memory task that the manual files under the Working Memory Index, not the VSI. Pearson makes a similar move: its Expanded Visual Spatial Index needs Spatial Addition, a subtest the brochure files under working memory. The Nonverbal Index, which the manual describes as emphasizing "nonverbal reasoning, visual spatial ability, working memory, and speed with minimal reliance on verbal content", also uses Visual Puzzles and Layer Rotation. Their statistics sit in the manual, and this page quotes none of them.

An ACIS VSI is not a WAIS-5 VSI. The two share a name and a subtest name, Visual Puzzles, but the items, the subtest lists and the reference groups differ, so the two numbers should never be subtracted or treated as interchangeable. The Wechsler version tells you how a construction task and a mental assembly task went. The ACIS version samples three formats, and a score built that way is less exposed to a bad hour on one task. It is still an online, unsupervised measurement.

11 What conditions should an unsupervised session meet?

A spatial index is only as good as the sitting that produced it, so the conditions matter more for an unsupervised session, above all because all three ACIS spatial subtests are timed and drawn on a screen. Visual Puzzles allows 20 or 45 seconds per item, Layer Rotation allows 45 seconds per item, and Spatial Comprehension runs on a 25 minute total, according to the technical manual. A device with a clear, reasonably large screen helps, because the figures carry all of the information in these tasks.

The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, APA and NCME, 2014) explain why this is not a detail. The comment on Standard 3.4 says that examinees working on older, slower equipment may be unfairly disadvantaged, that differences in the speed of processing or the fidelity of the visuals can let construct-irrelevant factors influence performance, and that results of unproctored administrations, where standardization cannot be ensured, should be interpreted with caution. Standard 6.4 asks for a testing environment with reasonable comfort and minimal distractions, and its comment lists noise, poor lighting and malfunctioning computers among the conditions to avoid. Standard 6.1 asks that the standardized procedures be followed, and its comment says the same procedures should in general be used as when the norms were obtained.

In practice that means a few things for these three subtests.

• Sound is not needed. The three ACIS subtests that present items as audio are Digit Span, Alphanumeric Sequencing and Arithmetic. The spatial three are not among them, though a full battery still needs working sound.
• Read the knowledge sheet. Spatial Comprehension offers a sheet defining its terms before the subtest begins, and its answers are typed numbers as well as choices, so a keyboard is needed.
• Do not rush the setup. Close other windows, silence notifications and sit with the screen at a comfortable distance before a timed item begins.
• Use the breaks. ACIS allows breaks, saves progress between subtests and gives 30 days to complete, so there is no reason to sit a timed spatial task while tired or interrupted.

Do not rehearse the format. A VSI is meant to describe spatial performance on material that is new to the person, and the Uttal meta-analysis above shows that training can raise performance on spatial tasks. A retake after a run through similar puzzles therefore describes familiarity as well as ability. That is a reading of the construct, not a measured effect size for any particular test. Rest, a quiet room and a clear screen are the preparations that help without changing what the score describes.

12 Where ACIS sits, and what a buyer should do

ACIS sells a competing paid assessment, so treat this section as a disclosure: an ACIS Visual Spatial Index is an online, unsupervised, English only score that can describe your standing on three spatial tasks and cannot diagnose, certify or replace a clinician's evaluation. ACIS is one option among those in the comparison above, and it is the only row in that table that returns a normed spatial index at home for 15 or 50 dollars. It is not a WAIS-5, it does not produce WAIS-5 scores, and it is not for hiring decisions, school accommodations or admission to high IQ societies. The manual states that verbal and knowledge tasks are affected by English proficiency and educational exposure, and Spatial Comprehension relies on a sheet of defined terms. Anything that needs a clinical, educational or legal answer belongs with a qualified examiner.

The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, APA and NCME, 2014) are the benchmark this page applies to every index, including ACIS's. Standard 1.14 asks that the basis and rationale for composite scores be given and that the rationale and evidence for interpreting subscores, differences and profiles be provided. Standard 2.3 asks for reliability and precision estimates for each score that is interpreted, Standard 2.4 asks for such data for differences between scores, Standard 3.4 asks for comparable treatment and flags unproctored administration, and Standard 5.1 asks that users be given clear explanations of the meaning of scale scores and their limitations. The ACIS technical manual is where ACIS documents its own evidence, and a reader should check it against those standards, not against this page.

The American Psychological Association gives psychologists matching guidance in its Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, effective January 1, 2017. Standard 9.02 asks psychologists to use assessments in ways that fit the research on their usefulness and proper application and to use instruments whose validity and reliability have been established for the population tested, describing strengths and limitations when they have not. Standard 9.06 asks them to take account of the purpose of the assessment and of test factors and personal, linguistic and cultural characteristics when interpreting results. Those standards bind psychologists, not a self administered online test, but they describe how any index should be read: with its purpose, its reference group and its limits in view.

What a buyer should do follows from that. If the spatial index is the question, the Custom Test with the three spatial subtests costs 15 dollars and returns the full VSI. If the question is the whole profile, the Full Scale form costs 50 dollars and returns the six indexes together with the Full Scale IQ, so the VSI can be read beside the others. Look at an example report first, because it shows how the index, percentile and interval are printed. ACIS states a refund rule that should be read literally: "Full refund within 5 days if the report does not deliver the features described at checkout or a technical issue prevents you from accessing your results." Prices were read on October 29, 2026 and can change. For a reader who suspects the result will matter for a clinical or legal decision, the next step is a conversation with a psychologist, with the ACIS profile as a starting point and not as evidence.

13 Sources Behind This Page

Every figure above is traceable to one of the following, and each is linked at the point where it is used. Web pages were opened on October 29, 2026, and our own arithmetic is labeled as such in the text.

• AERA, APA and NCME. Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. American Educational Research Association, 2014, Standards 1.14, 2.3, 2.4, 3.4, 5.1, 6.1 and 6.4.
• American Psychological Association. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, effective January 1, 2017, Standards 9.02 and 9.06.
• Pearson. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fifth Edition (WAIS-5) product page, read October 29, 2026.
• Pearson. WAIS-5 overview brochure, 2025, read October 29, 2026.
• Pearson. WAIS-5 sample score report, sample examinee, dated September 16, 2024, read October 29, 2026.
• Pearson. Telepractice and the WAIS-5, guidance document, 2024, read October 29, 2026.
• Pearson. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fifth Edition (WISC-V) product page, read October 29, 2026.
• Pearson. WISC-V and WISC-V Integrated composite score selection according to Block Design and response booklet use, table, read October 29, 2026.
• Canivez G L, Watkins M W and Dombrowski S C. Structural validity of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fifth Edition: Confirmatory factor analyses with the 16 primary and secondary subtests. Psychological Assessment, 2017, volume 29, issue 4, pages 458 to 472.
• Canivez G L, Watkins M W, McGill R J and Dombrowski S C. Construct validity of the WAIS-5: Complementary exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the 20 primary and secondary subtests. Assessment, 2026, published online, volume and issue not yet assigned in the Crossref record read October 29, 2026.
• Weiss L G, Keith T Z, Zhu J and Chen H. WAIS-IV and clinical validation of the four- and five-factor interpretative approaches. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 2013, volume 31, issue 2, pages 94 to 113.
• Riverside Insights. Woodcock-Johnson V Tests of Cognitive Abilities: CHC abilities and test descriptions, read October 29, 2026.
• Wai J, Lubinski D and Benbow C P. Spatial ability for STEM domains: Aligning over 50 years of cumulative psychological knowledge solidifies its importance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 2009, volume 101, issue 4, pages 817 to 835.
• Kell H J, Lubinski D, Benbow C P and Steiger J H. Creativity and technical innovation. Psychological Science, 2013, volume 24, issue 9, pages 1831 to 1836.
• Uttal D H, Meadow N G, Tipton E, Hand L L, Alden A R, Warren C and Newcombe N S. The malleability of spatial skills: A meta-analysis of training studies. Psychological Bulletin, 2013, volume 139, issue 2, pages 352 to 402.

14 Frequently Asked Questions