Adaptation of the WISC-III in Sudan and Japan: A Cross-Cultural Study

A number of cross-cultural studies have been carried out particularly comparing the processes of translation and adaptation of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Edition (WISC-III) in many cultures and countries in Europe and Asia. No cross-cultural studies were carried out comparing adaptation of tests in Japan with African and Arab countries. The aim of the present study is to fill this gap by comparing the adaptation process of the WISC-III in Sudan, as a poor African country, and Japan as a rich Asian country as well as to compare the performance of Sudanese and Japanese children in subtests. In Sudan, the WISC-III (6-16 years) was translated from English to Arabic and then from Arabic to English. In Japan the test was translated from English to Japanese and then from Japanese to English. The study showed that performance tests are identical in all countries except in Sudan and Japan. Psychologists in the two countries were highly sensitive to their environment and the results showed that the WISC-III has generally enjoyed adequate structural equivalent in Sudan as well as Japan. The adapted test was applied to a group of 330 and 1125 children in Sudan and Japan, respectively. The most remarkable fi nding is that the WISC-III has high levels of reliability and validity in the two countries. In Japan, time limits for some subtests were shortened from 120 to 90 seconds. By contrast, in Sudan time limits were increased from 120 to 150 seconds. In terms of performance, the study showed Japanese children performed better in visual-spatial tests while children in Sudan performed better in verbal tests.