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History of Intelligence Testing (Page 7)
In response to his criticism of the 1937 Binet scale's emphasis on language/verbal skills, Wechsler included an entire scale that provided a measure of nonverbal intelligence into his assessment measure. This performance scale consists of tasks that require the subject to do something rather than merely to answer questions.
Even though the 1937 Binet scale contained some performance tasks, these items tended to appear at the early age levels. In addition, the results of a subjects's response to a performance task on the Binet scale were extremely difficult to separate from the results of verbal tasks. However, as the Wechsler scale included two separate scales, the verbal scale provided a measure of verbal intelligence and the performance scale provided a measure of nonverbal intelligence. The performance scale makes a valiant effort to overcome biases caused by language, culture, and education. Furthermore, performance tasks can provide a rich context for observing problem solving abilities. However, because these tasks tend to require a longer interval of sustained effort, concentration, and attention, they tend to be vulnerable to emotional disorders.
  
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