An investigation of the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt test on known groups utilizing Pascal's scoring technique

Purpose of the Study. The purpose of this study is to determine the difference of scorable records of visual motor perception to the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test of a sample of nonpatients and psychiatric groups, by using Pascal's quantitative system of scoring. Testing Procedure. The Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test was used as an instrument for measuring visual motor perception, and Pascal's system of scoring records obtained was used to find the validity of the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test in discriminating the records of normal indviduals and psychiatric patients. Subjects. The Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test was administered to a total of 175 subject who ranged in age from 13 to 62 years with a mean age of 37.5. Fifty normals and 125 psychiatric patients were tested. Results. All records were scored following Pascal's quantitative system of scoring the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test. The significant differences are briefly gven below. Normal group and Psychiatric group. The Psychiatric group records scored higher in Pascal's system of scoring the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test. This result is in agreement with Pascal's statement that high schores are indicative of little ego strength. Pre-control and Post-control groups. No significant different between the two groups was found. Pre-lobotomy and Post-lobotomy groups. There was no significant difference between the two groups. Post-lobotomy and Pre-control groups. No signficant difference between the two groups was found. Post-lobotomy and Post-control groups. There was no significant difference between the two groups. Pre-lobotomy and Deteriorated Organic groups. The deteriorated organic group scored higher than the pre-lobotomy group. Post-lobotomy and Deteriorated Organic groups. The deteriorated organic group scored higher than the post-lobotomy group. Pre-control and Deteriorated Organic groups. The deteriorated organic group scored higher than the pre-control group. Post-control and Deteriorated organic groups. The deteriorated organic groups scored higher than the Post-control group. Conclusions. The psychiatric group scored higher in Pascal's system of scoring quantitatively the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test. The study of reliability of the scoring system yielded a reliability coefficient of .84 for the raw scores and .88 for z scores on testing and retesting of 30 psychiatric cases. The analysis of variance study was used to estimate the validity of the test and indicated that there is significant difference among the groups compared, namely: normal, psychiatric, post-lobotomy and deteriorated organic. The F ratio showed significance beyond 1% level of confidence.