Bender Gestalt Test (BGT).pptx.pdf..................

THE BENDER GESTALT TEST
(BGT)
Jay Kumar Ranjan, M. Phil., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor,
Department of Psychology, BHU Varanasi.

Introduction
❑ Bender Gestalt Test was introduced by Lauretta
Bender In 1938 in a monograph entitled “ A Visual
Motor Gestalt Test and Its Clinical Use”
❑ Originally published by American Orthopsychiatric
Association
❑ Evaluates Visual-Motor Maturity
❑ Originally developed by Wertheimer-demonstrate
perceptual tendencies to organize visual stimuli into
configural whole (Gestaltian)

Introduction
❑ BGT consists of nine figures characterized by
their gestalt
❑ It is not a test of visual memory, rather it is a
test of perception and visual motor functioning

Stages of Reproduction of
Gestalt Design
❑ Perceptual behaviour involves three major stages:
1. Sensory reception of the figures
2. Interpretation or organization of the figures at the
central level of the nervous system
3. Motor performance of the figure (drawing)
❑ The whole process of reception, interpretation
(consolidation of gestalt formation or organization)
and execution required for the reproduction of
Bender’s design

❑ Performance on BGT may distorted by Brain Injury,
toxicity, and degenerative process of brain cell and
nervous systems

Purpose of BGT Administration
❑ Screen students for developmental delays
❑ Assess brain damage and neurological deficits
❑ Applied to people suffered traumatic brain injury
❑ Sometimes used with other personality test to
determine presence of emotional and psychiatric
disturbances such as schizophrenia

Materials
❑ A set of nine BGT Cards
❑ A set of good quality white papers (11’ x 8.5’)/
Full-scape Bond Paper
❑ HB pencil
❑ One eraser
❑ BGT Recording Form

Scoring Systems of the Bender
Gestalt Test
❑ Billingslea’s (1948) Objective Scoring Method
❑ Pascal and Suttell’s (1951) Objective Scoring
Sysyem
❑ Peek and Quast’s (1951) Scoring System
❑ Gobetz’s (1953) Quantified System
❑ Hain’s (1964) Scoring Method
❑ Cooper and barnes’s(1966) Scoring Method
❑ Pauker’s Quick Scoring System
❑ Hutt’s(1977) Comprehensive Scoring System

Hutt’s Comprehensive
Scoring System

Test Instructions
❑ I have nine cards here. Each card has a different
drawing on it. I will show you the cards one at a time.
❑ Use this pencil (give pencil to examinee) to copy the
drawing from each card onto this sheet of paper
(point to the drawing paper).
❑ Try to make your drawings look just like the
drawings on the cards.
❑ There are no time limits, so take as much time as you
need.
❑ Do you have any questions? Here is the first card.

❑ Sequence
❑ Sequence refers to the degree of regularities in
successive placement of drawings on the pages
used in making reproductions.
❑ It should be from left to right or from top to
down
❑ Sequential Difficulties: Negativistic or
Rebellious Tendencies

❑ Sequence
❑ Drawing precisely in Correct Sequences:
Compulsive Subject
❑ Irregular or Confuse Sequence: highly
neurotics, psychotics, schizophrenics,
psychopaths

❑ Position of the First Drawing/ or Drawings
❑ Placement of figure A on the page
❑ And, whether the subject uses a single page for
all the drawings or uses more than one page
❑ Extreme upper left: Fearful people
❑ Any edge placement : abnormal placement

❑ Use of Space
❑ This refers to the spacing between successive
or adjacent drawings
❑ Constricted use of space: withdrawn, fearful,
and covertly hostile models of behaviour
❑ Expansive use of spaces: overtly assertive,
rebellious, and egocentric models of behaviour

❑ Collision
❑ Collision is scored when figures are drawn in such
a way that they actually overlap or collide
❑ The perimeter of one figure must either touch or
overlap the perimeter of another figure
❑ Collision: young children, neurological
impairment, muscular disturbances
❑ Collision: Indicators of psychological disturbances

❑ Shift in the Position of Paper
❑ This factor refers to the actual rotation of the test
paper from the vertical position to the horizontal
position
❑ It is different from the Rotation, Rotation is
basically rotation of reproduced individual design
❑ This indicates overt or latent passive oppositional
tendencies
❑ Children: Some rotates because of their rotational
tendencies

❑ Closure Difficulties
❑ This factor refers to difficulty in joining the
part within a figure
❑ The Closure difficulties may be manifested in
a number of ways:
• Gaps at the point of joining,
• overshooting the joining,
• erasures or corrections at the point of joining
• Increased pressure at such points

❑ Closure Difficulties
❑ Closure difficulties indicate impaired or weak
visuo-motor co-ordination with impaired or
weak emotional balance
❑ Mainly present on figure A, 2, 4, 7, and 8
❑ It further indicates
❑ Emotional maladjustment, weak ego strength,
difficulty in inter-personal relationship

❑ Crossing Difficulties
❑ It is manifested by redrawing, sketching, erasing,
or markedly increasing the line pressure at the
point where lines cross mainly on figure 6 and 7
❑ It further indicates psychological blocking and
have shown it to be correlated with such
behaviours as indeciveness, compulsive doubts,
and phobia
❑ This may be also manifested by interpersonal
difficulties

❑ Curvature Difficulties
❑ This refers to any obvious change in the
nature of the curves in figures 4, 5, and 6
❑ Changes such as
• The amplitude of the curve
• Curve is replaced by straight lines or spiked lines
• The curve is flattened
• The curve is made very unevenly or irregularly

❑ Curvature Difficulties
❑ This indices also indicates the emotional
disturbances
❑ Emotionally labile patients tend to produce
increased curvature
❑ Depressive patients tend to decrease curvature
❑ Irregularities in curvature denotes weak ego
impairment and emotional imbalance

❑ Change in Angulations
❑ It means increased or decreased by 15 degrees
or more of the angulations in stimulus figures
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
❑ Angulations difficulties indicates the
adjustment difficulty and impairment
perceptual motor co-ordination of the subject

❑ Perceptual Rotation
❑ This factor refers to the reproduction of the test
figure with a rotation of its major axis while the
stimulus cards and the test paper are presented in
normal standard position
❑ this indices is the indicator of ego impairment and
maladjustment
❑ It is also found that the relation between the degree
of awareness of the patient and his rotational errors

❑ Retrogression
❑ Retrogression denotes more primitive form of
Gestalt than does the stimulus
❑ Substitution of dots for circle
❑ Substitution of dashes for dots
❑ Retrogression indicates relatively severe and
chronic diffuse against trauma
❑ It is an indicator of some degree of failure in ego
integration and functioning

❑ Retrogression
❑ It also indicates the disorganization of
personality and inadequate compensation for
chronic conflict
❑ It is not a defense mechanism. “ Don’t
confuse”

❑ Simplification
❑ Simplification means the figure is drawn in a
simplified or easier form that is not more primitive
from malnutritional point of view from the
stimulus
❑ It means the reproduction of the stimulus as a
simple figure or one which is simpler to draw
❑ It represents reduced the expenditure of energy
required in completing a task or dealing with a
situation

❑ Fragmentation
❑ It means that the figure is broken up into parts
destroying the Gestalt or if the figure
incomplete
❑ It represents disorganized behavioural pattern
and inadequate perceptual motor disturbances
❑ It also indicates decrement on the capacities
for abstracting and synthesizing

❑ Overlapping Difficulties
❑ This factor refers to the specified types of
difficulty with overlapping and contiguous
figures ( specially figure A and 4)
❑ This difficulty may be associate with diffused
brain damage

❑ Elaboration or Doodling
❑ This factor refers to the doodling or elaboration on
the reproduction in which the form is markedly
changed
❑ Elaboration may includes
• Addition of loop or circles
• Addition of lines or curves
❑ Found in psychiatric cases as well as in mental
retardation
❑ It is an indicator of loss of control over reality factors
or retreat in fantasies

❑ Perseveration
❑ In appropriate substitution of the features of a
preceding stimulus, such as replacing the circles of
figure 2 with the dots of figure 1
❑ Replacing of dots of figure 3 and 5 with the circles
of figure 2
❑ Add extra dots or circles
❑ Indicates poor impulse control and mental
set-shifting abilities

❑ Redrawing of the total figure
❑ Redrawing means second or third attempt to
reproduce the original figure
❑ Indicator of emotional disturbances
❑ It is more frequently seen among psychiatric
patients and drug addicts
❑ Sometimes drawn by younger children

Rules for using Scoring Signs
❑ Scoring signs are simple and quantitative as
well as qualitative scoring procedure
❑ Hain’s methods of scoring uses 15 signs
❑ Each sign is scored once
❑ Each sign is given a numerical weight
❑ Each sign is scored on the basis of “all or
none” phenomenon

Ranges of the Scores
Maximum Score: 34
Minimum Score: 0

Interpretation
Raw Score Interpretation
0-4 No impairment
5-8 Mild to Moderate Impairment in the area of
Visuo-motor co-ordination
9-34 Moderate to Severe Impairment in the area of
Visuo-motor co-ordination

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