Memory for Design Test

Rationale

The Memory for design test examines visual recall of an individual based on brain

damage versus functional disorder versus normality. It is popular test for examination of

brain damage. The test was administered on child for academic purpose.

Identifying Data

Name Initials: M.A

Age: 14years

Gender: boy

Institute: R.S.I

Behavioral Observation

At the time of test administration, the child seemed well groomed, hygiene and

grooming were appropriate for age. He worn uniform appropriately, shoes were polished but

not tied. The child appeared smaller than his stated age. He had large bulging eyes. The child

maintained eye contact. He was showing compliance on the trainees’ instructions. The client

on seat behavior was present. The tone of his voice was normal. Child’s level of arousal

fluctuated during testing; child was sometimes highly distractible and at other times

demonstrated good attention to the tasks. The trainee begins from greeting in which the client

properly responded. His speech was fully developed as noted by his sentence structure. He

was in happy mood as the trainee asked him for doing activity related drawing various

shapes. The trainee gave him proper instructions regarding test as she asked him you will be

shown different types of cards one by one that have different shapes on them. The client has

to view the design for five seconds before it was removed from his view and you have to

copy these shapes on a blank paper the same way. Let’s start this activity now, you

understand very well. The client smiled and responds properly. The child looked carefully at
the shapes on the card and tried to make them into paper in the same way. The child

demonstrated appropriate grip on pencil; and no hand preference was observed as he was

right handed. The child was distracted by the surroundings again and again during copying

these shapes. His attention span was not up to the mark. At first he tried to make these

pictures with great eagerness, but gradually he got tired of this activity and then he tried to

make these pictures very quickly.

Quantitative Interpretation

Table 1

Categories Ranges Raw Score

Normal 1 and below

Borderline 2-6

Brain damage 7 and above 20

Qualitative Interpretation

Qualitative interpretation gave the frequency of four types of Orientation Error (OE)

produced in response to each of 13 designs. No OE was design 1, 3, 4,5,6,7, and design 8.

The 45º Rotation, which had the most limited opportunity to occur, being found only in

response to Design 2 and 11, nevertheless accounted for a greater number of OEs than did

any other type. In contrast, the vertical reversal on 4 designs, the horizontal rotation on nine

designs and the 90 º Rotation on ten of the design occurred. The client faced problem in

drawing 5th, 7th, 8th shape. In shape 11, 12, 13 and 14 participant omitted the lines and draw

incomplete shape. The grand total of child’s score on memory for design test was 21, the

scores falls under the range of 7 and above. This indicated that the child had brain damage, as

he couldn’t recall the information by visualizing the pictures.

Conclusion

The test showed that the child has severe brain damage in area of cognition and

memory. His focus and concentration in drawing pictures was poor few designs were

opposite done by the child. Some lines of different shapes were omitted and client faced the

difficulty in drawing complex shapes. So by the results it was conclude that the client had

intellectual disability.

Limitations

 The test was administered in library where environment was very distracting due to

other people existence.

 It was the first experience of trainee to administering the neurological tests on special

population so there could be chances of mistakes in interpretation of shapes

 The weather was too hot and the client felt lethargy

Recommendation

 There must be separate room for sessions and test administration for special children

due to their short attention span

 The environment must be distraction free