Validity of Benton's Judgement of Line Orientation Test

Abstract

Although frequently used in neuropsychological assessment, validity studies of Benton's Judgement of Line Orientation (JLO) test have been few. This study addressed validity of the JLO in terms of construct and criterion-related validity with 73 children. The sample included normal controls and clinically diagnosed children with psychiatric disorders and/or learning disabilities. The ability of the JLO to discriminate among these groups of children is explored. The correlations between the JLO and more frequently used measures, specifically the WISC-R Performance subtests, confirm that the JLO assesses some component of visual spatial ability assessed by these other measures. The JLO also was found to correlate significantly with math ability as measured by the BASIS and the WRAT-R and, to a lesser degree, with reading ability as measured by the WRMT-R. The results indicate that although there is evidence of construct and criterion-related validity, the JLO did not discriminate among normal controls, clinic-referred children with psychiatric disorders, and clinic-referred children with learning disabilities.