The Effect of Verbal Labelling on Visual Motor Performance

Abstract

Kindergarten children from a negro slum school and a white middle-to-high income suburban school were administered the Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test (BVMGT). Perceptual Scores, determined by the Koppitz Scale, demonstrated that more Negro children were poorer in visual-motor performance than White children. The Test was administered three weeks later to all S's in order to evaluate the effect of verbal labelling and experience on test performance. Half of the subjects in each group were required to describe the Bender Cards before copying them in order to elicit verbal labelling. The other half performed a repetition of the test to control for factors of familiarity and experience. Results indicated that a second administration of the test eliminated previous differences between the Negro and White S's for both conditions of retesting.

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