Bender Gestalt Test

Bender-Gestalt Test. The Bender-Gestalt is a nonverbal performance test in which the individual copies a design shown on a card. It is often used to identify a problem of visual perception and/or motor performance or minimal brain dysfunction in children. 

McCarthy Scales of Children s Abilities, (2) the Preschool Language Scale, (3) the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement - Letter and Word Recognition, (4) Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement -Applied Problems and, (5) the Bender Gestalt test, and (6) the Child Behavior Checklist. The test results were similar to what would be expected from a healthy, well-developing U.S. population. No test indicated a deleterious effect of methylmercury from the exposure levels received in this population. 

For two end points (WISC-R block design. Bender Gestalt Test errors), associations indicating adverse Hg effects p < 0.05) were found when an alternative approach to adjustment for confounders (Peters-Belson method) was applied. Results were similar when the 15% of the cohort with maternal-hair Hg concentrations greater than 10 ppm were excluded from the analyses. A term for the interaction between Hg and... 

Trillingsgaard, A., O.N. Hansen, and I. Beese. 1985. The Bender-Gestalt Test as a neurobehavioral measure of preclinical visual-motor integration deficits in children with low-level lead exposure. Pp. 189-193 in WHO Environmental Health, Document 3. Neurobehavioral Methods in Occupational and Environmental Health, Second International Symposium, Copenhagen, Denmark, Aug.6-9,1985. Copenhagen, Denmark World Health OrganizatioiL... 

Psychomotor development tests Oseretsky Motor Development Scale, Bender Gestalt test, pinboard, tapping, threading beads, making dots, simple reaction time, choice reaction time, and muscular strength test. 

With the Bender Gestalt Test, which evaluates integration of functions on the basis of visual-motor items, A3.8% of the untreated and 26.9% of the treated migrating subjects showed lack of maturity (SI) or were abnormal (A) (Table 9). In addition, the configuration of the frequency distribution between the two groups was quite different (Figure 3). Similar differences were found between treated and untreated non-migrating subjects. 

Table 9. Results obtained with the Bender Gestalt Test in 78 treated migrating and 57 untreated migrating subjects.

Figure 3. Frequency distribution of the findings observed in untreated migrating and treated migrating persons through use of the Bender Gestalt Test A-abnormal IS-immaturity signs Nl-normal inferior and N-normal.

Germany Duisburg children tested at 8 years (control 26, exposed 26) Children exposed from a nearby lead smelter. Pb-teeth, control 2.4 ppm Pb-teeth, exposed 9.2 ppm Significant association of Bender-Gestalt Test deficits with exposure Winneke etal. (1982)... 

The studies conforming to the protocol worked out at the WHO/CEC meeting in Dusseldorf (WHO, 1984), are recommended to include in their test battery two tests of visuospatial and attentional skills (one a shapecopying task in normal and interference mode - the Bender Gestalt test, and a trail-making test) two tests of vigilance performance (one an automated reaction-time task, and the other a symbol-cancellation task) the Wiener reaction-time test and tests of immediate and delayed memory. 

In epidemiological studies of children, psychometric tests which bear some relation to those used in animal studies, such as visual discrimination tasks, or memory tests, have generally proved insensitive to lead. The exceptions are the Bender Gestalt test and the Wiener reaction task. These have both fairly consistently shown lead-related differences, and in a somewhat similar way to animal studies, in that it is error scores, rather than correct responses, which show the relationship. A further similarity in results from the Wiener reaction device is that the differences are more marked as the difficulty of the task increases. 

Bender Gestalt Test without and with the Canter Background Interference Procedure. 

Visual motor performance was assessed by means of the Bender Gestalt test, using the German scoring system of the Goettinger Form Reproduction Test (GFT) (Schlange et al, 1972). 

By contrast, after control for confounding variables, our results did not show any influence of lead exposure on visual motor performance, evaluated by Bender Gestalt Test, by the Trail Making Test, and on scholastic attainment. 

The most clear-cut results of our study relate to the Bender Gestalt test. This test has been included in the test batteries of a number of studies. Significant differences in the error scores for this test have been found in five (de la Burde and Choate, 1975 Winneke et al, 1982a, b Shapiro and Marecek, 1984 Harvey et al, 1984) while two studies did not identify any lead-related difference. The Bender Gestalt test which requres a number of skills should be particularly sensitive to the presence of mild cerebral dysfunction. The... 

Finally, in terms of the sources of information which could, and should, be used in selecting an appropriate battery of tests, the results of previous research with children should not be forgotten. There are some tests, for example, the Bender Gestalt test, and the Wiener Reaction Time device, which do seem to show an association with lead more consistently than most others. A theoretical approach to test-selection would use this information to investigate further the components of performance in these tasks. 

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