BENDER VISUAL MOTOR

GESTALT TEST
HISTORY OF BVMGT

The Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test (1946) is a

widely used test to assess visual motor processing.
It is often referred to as the Bender-Gestalt:
Bender – the person who designed it
Gestalt – comes from a German word meaning “form”
HISTORY OF BVMGT
The first version of the Bender-Gestalt
test was developed in 1938 by child
neuropsychiatrist Lauretta Bender.
Bender first described her Visual
Motor Gestalt Test in a 1938
monograph entitled: A Visual Motor
Gestalt Test and Its Clinical Use
HISTORY OF BVMGT
The figures were derived from the
work of the gestalt psychologist, Max
Wertheimer.
Visual-Verbal → Visual-Motor
HISTORY OF BVMGT
It ranked in the top 5 most popular psychological tests used by
mental health practitioners, particularly psychologists, from the
1960s until early 1990s when participation in the required
training began to decline.
It measures perceptual motor skills, perceptual motor
development, and gives an indication of neurological defects.
HISTORY OF BVMGT
Additional versions were developed by later practitioners,
although adaptations designed as projective tests have been
heavily criticized in the clinical literature due to their lack of
psychometric validity.
All versions follow the same general format, but differ in how
results are evaluated and scored.
HISTORY OF BVMGT
1930s: Max L. Hutt
Hutt is an instructor at the Educational Clinic of City College of New York
who became interested in developing a nonverbal projective personality
test.
Goal:
eliminates problems with language
prevent tests subjects from consciously screening their responses
can be accomplished in as little as ten minutes
Subject was forced to interpret the task and proceed in a manner that was
consistent with the individual’s accustomed personality style
HISTORY OF BVMGT
1941: World War II
Hutt was commissioned in the US Army and assigned as a consultant in
Psychology to the Surgeon General’s Office in Washington.
The army was experiencing a need to quickly train and deploy both
Psychiatrists and Psychologists to meet the vastly increased need of
professionals to diagnose and treat the emotional problems that develop
in test stress of wartime military duty.
He introduced Bender-Gestalt Test to classes of inducted and
commissioned psychologists who in prior years had experience in
educational clinics, schools, and mental institutions.
HISTORY OF BVMGT
1945: Administration and Interpretation
He published “Tentative Guide for the Administration and Interpretation of
the Bender-Gestalt Test”
It had been widely adopted and utilized in the US Military
The clinicians trained by Hutt and now discharged and continuing the
practice and teaching of Clinical Psychology in civilian life made the
Bender-Gestalt one of the most widely utilized psychological tests.
HISTORY OF BVMGT
1959: Dr. Gerald J. Biskin
He was a former student of Hutt who had served during the
Korean War who had made considerable use of Bender-Gestalt
during his military service.
He had acquired extensive experience with the test in treating
and diagnosing brain damage and stress-related psychological
and psychiatric disorders.
HISTORY OF BVMGT
1960: New Publication
Hutt and Briskin discussion and exchange of clinical findings led
to the decision to bring their joint extensive experience with the
Bender-Gestalt in one definitive volume
“The Clinical Use of the Revised Bender-Gestalt Test” .
Elizabeth M. Koppitz
She adopted several of the Hutt and Briskin scoring factors in her
subsequent work, “The Bender-Gestalt Test for Young Children”
HISTORY OF BVMGT
The test has been used as a screening device for brain damage.
Bender herself said:
It was a method of evaluating maturation of gestalt functioning
children 4-11’s brain functioning by which it responds to a given
constellation of stimuli as a whole, the response being a motor
process of patterning the perceived gestalt.
PURPOSE OF BVMGT
It is used to evaluate visual maturity, visual motor
integration skills, style of responding, reaction to
frustration, ability to correct mistakes, planning and
organizational skills, and motivation.
Copying figures requires fine motor skills, the ability to
discriminate between visual stimuli, the capacity to
integrate visual skills with motor skills, and the ability to
shift attention from the original design to what is being
drawn.
PRECAUTIONS OF BVMGT
It should not be administered to an individual with severe
visual impairment unless his or her vision has been
adequately corrected with eyeglasses.
It should not be given to an examinee with a severe motor
impairment, as the impairment would affect his or her
ability to draw the geometric figures correctly. Scores
might be distorted.
PRECAUTIONS OF BVMGT
It should never be used in isolation. It should be used in
conjunction with other medical, developmental,
educational, psychological, and neuropsychological
information.
It requires administration and evaluation by a clinically
trained examiner. If a scoring system is used, the examiner
should carefully evaluate its reliability and validity, as well
as the normative sample being used.
DESCRIPTIONS OF BVMGT
It is an individually administered pencil-and-paper test
used to make diagnosis of brain injury.
There are nine geometric figures drawn in black. These
figures are presented to the examinee one at a time; then,
the examinee is asked to copy the figure on a blank sheet
of paper.
Examinees are allowed to erase, but cannot use any
mechanical aids (such as rulers)
DESCRIPTIONS OF BVMGT
The average amount of time to complete the test is five to
ten minutes.
One method requires that the examinee view each card
for five seconds, after which the card is removed. The
examinee draws the figure from memory.
The test is given to a group, rather than to an individual.
BENDER-GESTALT II
It was originally published by the American
Orthopsychiatric Association.
It was purchased in the 1900s by Riverside
Publishing Company and released with a revised
qualitative scoring system as the Bender-II under the
direction of Dr. Gary Brannigan and Dr. Scott L.
Decker.
BENDER-GESTALT II
Guidelines in the development of BG II
Keep the original nine designs, but increase the number
of designs in the test
Include a memory (recall) procedure
Compare both deviation- and quality-based scoring
system
Obtain a large, nationally representative sample
BENDER-GESTALT II
The Bender-II contains 16 figures.
13 designs (original 9 and 4 easier) for individuals below
age 8
12 designs (original 9 and 3 more difficult) for individuls
aged 8 and older
The new or revised scoring system for the Bender-II
was developed based on the empirical investigation
of numerous scoring system
BENDER-GESTALT II
For decades, the Koppitz version, was one of the most
frequently used scoring systems for the Bender-Gestalt in
the United States.
Cecil Reynolds, a friend of Koppitz, revised her scoring
system and Pro-Ed Publishing Company released it in
2007 as the Koppitz-2: The Koppitz Developmental
Scoring System for the Bender-Gestalt Test.