It is a frequent occurrence in accident cases involving alleged brain injury and attendant damage suits, for the defendant's attorney to charge the plaintiff in the case with malingering. At some time in the court proceedings it i.s also common that the plaintiff's psychologist will testify to the court that his client's brain damage is genuine, not feigned. but heretofore, clinicians have been able to speak to the court only from their own background of clinical experience, and clinicians have been known to disagree. They have not been able to refer to a body of research that has addressed itself to the question, Can Ss simulate brain damage on the Bender-Gestalt Test? This issue is particularly significant since many clinicians use the Bender to assess cases in which brain damage is suspected. Since the thrust of this study was exploratory, the answer to this experimental question is not totally conclusive. However, it was determined that college Ss of at least normal intelligence who did not present evidence of brain damage on an initial Bender screening could not simulate traumatic brain damage. Although there is little reason to believe that non-organic Ss from other kinds of educational backgrounds (excluding, possibly, Ss who are extremely knowledgeable about the Bender), ages and levels of intelligence could simulate traumatic brain damage successfully, this possibility exists and should be researched. The project consisted of a pilot study and a main study. In the pilot study 18 volunteers from an upper division psychology class were tested with a Bender in a group situation under standard instructions. Four weeks later they were . asked to simulate brain damage on the Bender. The test records of 18 organic Ss were used to form a criterion group. An ABPP certified clinical psychologist then attempted to sort the malingerers from the organics (Sort 1) and the normals from the organics (Sort 2). On the first sort, 2 of the 18 Ss in each group were missorted. On the second sort, 1 organic and 2 normals were missorted. The resulting Phi coefficients were .78 and .83, respectively. Since existing quantitative sorting methods (Le., the Pascal-Suttell system and the Canter system) were not able to validly differentiate malingerers from organics, it became necessary to spell out the implicit criteria which the clinician used as he performed his sorts. An analysis of the criteria then revealed that all of the missorts, except 1 organic S, involved confusions of "normal" Ss who were either borderline organics or mildly organic with organic S5 who were mildly organic. The main study was necessary to replicate the findings obtained from the pilot study since the criteria devised therefrom were formulated 'ex post facto.' The results obtained were generally comparable to those from the pilot study. In the main study, a second clinician independently sorted the groups in order to provide a reliability check on the sorting procedure. An analysis of the sorting decisions resulting from the criteria-based sorting procedure indicated that the sorting decisions of the 2 clinicians concurred on 84% of the protocols in the malingerer-organic sort and on 94% of the records in the normal-organic sort. A sort-resort operation by the first clinician on the malingerer-organic sort with one day intervening resulted in 100% agreement between his judgments.

This study attempted to define creativity in terms of objective, visible products of behavior. An existing psychological instrument, the Bender-Gestalt Test (BGT) was modified in presentation and scoring methods into a test of creative production. This test was chosen because of its similarity to some existing tests of creative production and its theoretical relationship to the associative model of creative production. It was combined with the Making Objects Test (MO) and the Remote Associations Test (RAT) into a three test battery and administered to 90 college students. The three tests were scored and the results correlated with each other to determine the degree of relationship.

The purpose of this study was to determine the usefulness of Koppitz's method of scoring the Bender Gestalt (BG) Test for the prediction of behavioral problems in retarded children. The problem behaviors with which this study was concerned were those most often associated with the hyperactive child.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the Bender Gestalt (BG) and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) with a group of preschool children. A second aim of this study was to explore the value of the BG as an intellectual screening instrument to be used in place of the time consuming WPPSI. This study consisted of 48 Ss (24 males and 24 females) who were attending nursery school classes and day care centers during the winter of 1978-79 in Muncie, Indiana. Age range at the time of testing was 5 years 0 months to 6 years 6 months with a mean age of 5 years 5 months. Tests were administered individually by a white male or female clinical psychology graduate student. Each examiner was randomly assigned a group of Ss consisting of 12 males and 12 females. The order of test administration was counterbalanced. Pearson product-moment (r) correlations obtained between the WPPSI Full, Verbal, and Performance Scales were r = -.65, r = -.52, and r = -.67, respectively (p<.001). Since more of the common variance was associated with the BG and the WPPSI Full (42%) and Performance Scales (45%) than with the Verbal Scale (27%), the BG may be used with caution in place of the WPPSI Full or Performance Scales with preschool children.

A study was conducted, comparing the relationship between the Bender-Gestalt Test and the Trail-Making Test in brain-damaged patients. The study revealed a moderate negative correlation between the scaled score of the Trail-Making Test and the psychopathology scale of the Hutt Adaptation of the Bender-Gestalt Test. This relationship indicates that a number of skills might be tapped by both of these tests in brain-damaged patients. A further analysis showed that the correlation between the Trail-Making Test A and three factors of the Bender-Gestalt Test, Use of Space I, Collision, and Elaboration, were found to be significant (.05). In addition, the Trail-Making Test B is significantly correlated with the following factors of the Bender-Gestalt Tests Sequence, Use of Space I, Collision, Perceptual Rotation, and Retrogression (.05).This investigation discussed a number of skills and abilities which might be important on the performance of these tests in brain damaged patients, namely: anticipatory planning, visual organization, and shifting. Furthermore, overt anxiety has been considered one of the factors which might affect the performance of the brain-damaged patients on both tests.

The purpose of the study was to examine the use of the Bender Gestalt Test Second Edition (BGT-II) with children diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Previous research has examined the relationship of ADHD and visual-motor functioning based on overall developmental scores or specific "emotional indicators." Although several of these studies have examined the relationship of the previous edition of the BGT and ADHD symptoms, methodological problems, a lack of a clear theoretical rationale, and psychometric problems associated with the original edition, limit the validity and generalizability of these results.This study sought to examine the utility of the revised edition of the BGT, the BGT-II, in the assessment of behaviors associated with ADHD. Based upon a broad theory of ADHD (Barkley, 1997b), several hypotheses were made regarding how areas of deficit (e.g., self-regulation, planning, working memory, motor control) were expected to he manifested in BGT-I1 performance. An ADHD group (N = 67) was compared to a control group of normal subjects (N = 100) and a group of subjects diagnosed with mental retardation (N = 59). Additionally, the performances of children diagnosed with subtypes of ADHD were compared in an attempt to clarify the nature of the disorder.The results of the study do not support the use of the BGT-11 in the assessment of ADHD. Although those with ADHD tended to perform more poorly than controls on the BGT-II, these differences disappeared when intellectual level was controlled. Traditional emotional indicators purporting to reflect impulsivity and attention problems also failed to demonstrate their efficacy. With the exception of the indicator Confused Order, they were no more indicative of individuals diagnosed with ADHD than those with no knowndisabilities. The proposed ADHD-related indicators also failed to demonstrate the ability to differentiate between the ADHD group and controls. / Department of Educational Psychology

Selecting appropriate normative data for the purpose of evaluating psychometric test scores forms an integral part of the interpretative psychological assessment process. This highlights the well-known problem of utilising measures developed in the United Kingdom (UK), or the United States (US) and accepting their norms unreservedly for the practice on local populations, which questions the tests’ validity and reliability. The current study, which aimed to collect normative indicators on the Bender Gestalt Test (Second Edition), forms part of the continuing effort to develop norms for psychological tests in South Africa, and to focus on the valid and reliable use of measures within the context of South Africa’s multicultural and multilingual population groups. The participants of the research were Black isiXhosa-speaking Grade 3 and Grade 7 learners aged 8 to 9 years (N = 38 ), and 12 to 13 years (N = 23), obtaining their school education in the disadvantaged educational setting of the former Department of Education and Training (ex-DET) schools. The tests were scored according to the Bender Gestalt Test (Second Edition) manual, using the Global Scoring System. Thereafter, the raw scores were converted to Standard Scores, T-scores and Percentile Ranks using the US normative tables, according to chronological age categories. When the two groups were compared to the US norms, the results equated favourably for the present study sample. There were no significant findings in relation to the classroom size or any difference in performance between the schools who participated. The only significant difference revealed between male and female participants was with the Grade 7 sample group, where the males scored significantly lower than females on the Recall phase. These results support the prospect of the continuous revision of norms, and it is suggesting that the cognitive processes measured by this test are likely to derive from robust neurological substrates that are relatively stable across cultural groups.

The study investigates .the use of the Bender Gestalt Test (BGT) amongst low-educated adults. Three versions of the BGT are used in this study; the original 'copy' version as well as the 'immediate' and 'delayed'recall versions. This is done so as to expand the ability of the BGT to identify neurological impairment and to differentiate between this and functional impairment. A literature review explores the problems of standardization in the administration, scoring and application of all three versions of the test Suggestions are made to correct the problems identified and a novel system of scoring the recall versions are proposed, which allows for the comparison of results of the three versions of the test and which is based on Lacks's (1984) and Weiss's (1970) systems. Administration procedures were also developed to suit the context of the study. The copy, immediate and delayed versions of the BGT were administered to a group of 184 low-educated adults. Statistical analyses revealed significant education effects for the sample tested with regards to both test scores and performance time. The finding of an education effect for performance time is discussed at length, as some literature regards excessive time as a neurological indicator. An anomaly for the group with no education was found to exist, with the scores of these subjects not Significantly different from those with 4-6 years of education. Possible reasons for this were explored. In addition, the findings of this research revealed a plateau effect with those having less than 6 years of education scoring substantially lower than those with 7 years and more. The scores of adults with 7 and more years of education level out with no significant differences between educational levels. This appears to suggest that education effects rather than the developmental maturity level proposed by Koppitz, are involved. In addition, the scores of low-educated adults on the expanded Bender Gestalt Test were significantly lower than those of children with similar educational levels, in other studies. These findings and possible explanations are discussed. The study concludes by suggesting new research areas and emphasizing the urgent need for separate normative data on the expanded BGT for low-educated adults, and the establishment of appropriate 'cut-off' points.

This study attempts to validate the hypothesis that six empirically derived signs will differentiate the alcoholic patient from other clinical groups.

The purpose of this study is to investigate differences in the stimulus value of the Bender Gestalt designs. It is concerned with both differences in structural values and affective values of the nine figures. The investigation is primarily concerned with the reliability of such differences, and secondarily with the general nature of the differences in stimulus value.