Lauretta Bender - Bender-Gestalt Test

Bender-Gestalt Test

Bender is best known for her Visual Motor Gestalt Test described in her 1938 monograph, A Visual Motor Gestalt Test and Its Clinical Use. The test consists of reproducing nine figures that are printed on cards. The figures were derived from the work of the famous Gestalt psychologist, Max Wertheimer. The Bender-Gestalt test, as it is now often called, was typically among the top five test used by clinical psychologists. It was considered to be a measure of perceptual motor skills and perceptual motor development and gives an indication of neurological intactness. Underlying the use of this test was Lauretta Bender's false argument that a single measure that assesses gestalt could potentially identify brain damage. In the past two decades studies have repeatedly shown that the B-G is not sensitive to the identification of brain damage or emotional problems. It is therefore rarely taught or used by clinical psychologists.

Scoring systems include:

• Elizabeth M. Koppitz's system for children (1963)
• Pascal and Suttell system for adults (1951)
• Hutt and Briskin projective personality feature system (1960)
• Arthur Canter's Background Interference Procedure (BIP) test for organicity (1976)

Patrica Lacks uses the BGT test 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."

Gestalt therapy is a separate and distinct science from the Visual Motor Gestalt Test. The name "Bender-Gestalt Test" derives its name from an adaptation of the figures from Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer.