The Bender-Gestalt test originated in 1936 with Lauretta Bender for evaluating perceptual and motor development of children 4 to 11 yr. old. Koppitz (1964) developed a scoring system for the test. Lacks (1984) contributed normative data for testing adults. Seven studies since Lacks' which have contributed to normative data of adults' responses to the Bender-Gestalt are reviewed here.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BachZ. (1987) Keep “Gestalt” in the name of the test: the curious permutations of the Bender-Gestalt test. Journal of Personality Assessment, 51, 109–111.
2.
BakerL. A.RyanC. T. (1995) Further validation of the quantitative scoring system for the modified Bender-Gestalt test. Psychology in the Schools, 32, 24–26.
3.
BenderL. (1938) A Visual Motor Gestalt Test and its clinical use. New York: The American Orthopsychiatric Association.
4.
BenderL. (1965) On the proper use of the Bender Gestalt test. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 20, 189–190.
5.
BolenL. M.HewettJ. B.HallC. W.MitchellC. C. (1992) Expanded Koppitz scoring system of the Bender-Gestalt Visual Motor Test for adolescents: a pilot test. Psychology in the Schools, 29, 113–115.
6.
CatesJ. A. (1999) The art of assessment in psychology: ethics, expertise, and validity. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 55, 631–641.
7.
FullerG. B.LevineM. (1987) Comparison of the efficacy of the Minnesota Percepto-diagnostic and Bender-Gestalt in assessing brain damage in adolescents. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 5, 194–199.
8.
GarkonD. C.CheifetzD. I. (1965) Comment on “Bender-Gestalt discernment of organic pathology”. Psychological Bulletin, 63, 197–200.
9.
GoldbergL. R. (1959) The effectiveness of clinicians' judgments: the diagnosis of organic brain damage from the Bender-Gestalt test. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 23, 25–33.
10.
HartL. R. (1994) Misleading report on poor screening power of the Bender-Gestalt: comment on Margolis, Williger, Greenlief, Dunn, and Gfeller (1989). Journal of Psychology, 128, 185–187.
11.
HellkampD. T.HoganM. E. (1985) Differentiation of organics from functional psychiatric patients across IQ ranges using the Bender-Gestalt and Hutt scoring system. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 41, 259–264.
12.
HuttM. L.MonheitS. (1985) Effectiveness of the Hutt adaptation of the Bender-Gestalt Test Configuration Scale in differentiating emotionally disturbed adolescents. Psychological Reports, 56, 439–443.
13.
JohnsonJ. E.HellkampD. T.LottmanT. J. (1971) The relationship between intelligence, brain damage, and Hutt-Briskin errors on the Bender-Gestalt. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 27, 84–85.
14.
KoppitzE. M. (1960) The Bender-Gestalt test for children: a normative study. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 16, 432–435.
15.
KoppitzE. M. (1964) The Bender test for young children. New York: Grune & Stratton.
16.
KoppitzE. M. (1968) Psychological valuation of children's Human Figure Drawing. New York: Grune & Stratton.
17.
LacksP. (1982) Continued clinical popularity of the Bender-Gestalt test: response to Bigler and Ehrfurth. Professional Psychology, 13, 677–680.
18.
LacksP. (1984) Bender-Gestalt screening for brain dysfunction. New York: Wiley.
19.
LacksP. B.NewportP. (1980) A comparison of scoring systems and level of scorer experience on the Bender-Gestalt test. Journal of Personality Assessment, 44, 351–357.
20.
LacksP. B.StorandtM. (1982) Bender-Gestalt performance of normal older adults. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 38, 624–627.
21.
LeckliterI. N.MatarazzoJ. D. (1989) The influence of age, education, IQ, gender, and alcohol abuse on Halstead-Reitan neuropsychological test battery performance. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 45, 484–512.
22.
LownsdaleW. S.RogersB. J.McCallJ. N. (1989) Concurrent validation of Hutt's Bender-Gestalt screening method for schizophrenia, depression, and brain damage. Journal of Personality Assessment, 53, 832–836.
23.
LubinB.SandsE. W. (1992) Bibliography of the psychometric properties of the Bender Visual-motor Gestalt Test: 1970–1991. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 75, 385–386.
24.
MahoneyP.WagnerE. E. (1990) Predicting normal age-related changes with intelligence, projective, and perceptual-motor test variables. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 71, 1225–1226.
25.
MargolisR. B.WilligerN. R.GreenliefC. L.DunnE. J.GfellerJ. D. (1989) The sensitivity of the Bender-Gestalt test as a screening instrument for neuropsychological impairment in older adults. Journal of Psychology, 123, 179–186.
26.
MarsicoD. S.WagnerE. E. (1990) A comparison of the Lacks and Pascal-Suttell Bender-Gestalt scoring methods for diagnosing brain damage in an outpatient sample. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 46, 868–877.
27.
McCannR.PlunkettR. P. (1984) Improving the concurrent validity of the Bender-Gestalt test. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 58, 947–950.
28.
McConnellO. L. (1967) Koppitz's Bender-Gestalt scores in relation to organic and emotional patterns in children. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 23, 370–374.
29.
MosherD. L.SmithJ. P. (1965) The usefulness of two scoring systems for the Bender-Gestalt test for identifying brain damage. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 29, 530–536.
30.
NealeM. D.McKayM. F. (1985) Scoring the Bender-Gestalt test using the Koppitz developmental system: interrater reliability, item difficulty, and scoring implications. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 60, 627–636.
31.
NyfieldP.PatalanoF. (1998) Effects of serial position on Bender-Gestalt errors using Koppitz's criteria. Psychological Reports, 83, 1227–1237.
32.
PiotrowskiC. (1995) A review of the clinical and research use of the Bender-Gestalt test. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 81, 1272–1274.
33.
PiotrowskiC. (1999) Assessment practices in the era of managed care: current status and future directions. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 55, 787.
34.
RosenbergR. S.BeckS. (1986) Preferred assessment methods and treatment modalities for hyperactive children among clinical child and school psychologists. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 15, 142–147.
35.
RussellE. W. (1976) The Bender-Gestalt and the Halstead-Reitan Battery: a case study. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 32, 355–361.
36.
ShapiroS. K.SimpsonR. G. (1995) Koppitz scoring system as a measure of Bender-Gestalt performance in behaviorally and emotionally disturbed adolescents. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 51, 108–112.
37.
StorandtM. (1990) Bender-Gestalt test performance in senile dementia of the Alzheimer type. Psychology and Aging, 5, 604–606.
38.
SvenssonP. W.HillM. A. (1990) Interrater reliability of the Koppitz developmental scoring method in the clinical evaluation of the single case. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 70, 615–623.
39.
WagnerE. E.MarsicoD. S. (1991) Redundancy in the Pascal-Suttell Bender-Gestalt scoring system: discriminating organicity with only one design. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 47, 261–263.
40.
WalkerC. E.RobertsM. C. (Eds.) (1992) Handbook of clinical child psychology. New York: Wiley.