Comparison of visual motor development in Hong Kong and the USA assessed on the Qualitative Scoring System for the Modified Bender-Gestalt test

This study compared the visuomotor development of young children in Hong Kong and the USA assessed on the Qualitative Scoring System for the Modified Bender-Gestalt test. 744 children aged 4:6 to 8:5 years from 6 kindergartens and 6 primary schools in Hong Kong were administered the Modified Bender-Gestalt test. The Qualitative Scoring System was used to measure the children's visuomotor development. Their visuomotor scores were then compared with norms for children in the USA. Analysis indicated significant differences across all age groups of 4:6 to 8:5 years in 6-mo. units. Consistent with previous research, children in Hong Kong outperformed their western peers. Percentile scores and T scores for children in Hong Kong in each age group were reported.     

Turkish children's Bender-Gestalt test performance: differences in public and private school children

The present study was undertaken to provide data on the Bender-Gestalt test for children aged 5 to 11 in Turkey. Although it is well documented that sociocultural factors are important in cognitive evaluations, the effects of type of school and differing educational opportunities provided by these schools on the Bender-Gestalt test have not been previously investigated. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of age, sex, and school type on Bender-Gestalt performance. The test was individually administered to 484 children between the ages of 5 and 11 years. The children were enrolled in either public or private schools. Koppitz's Developmental Scoring System was utilized. The results indicated that older children performed with fewer errors. Girls performed with fewer errors than boys. Finally, as expected, private school children outperformed their public school peers. The results are discussed with respect to the importance of taking into account various educational factors in utilizing commonly used tests.     

The Bender-Gestalt test in an Italian sample: an analysis of Koppitz's Developmental Bender Scoring System deviations

This study extended the research of the psychometric characteristics of Koppitz's 1963/1975 Developmental Scoring System of the Bender-Gestalt test. Attention was paid to relations among the 7 deviations. The test was administered by licensed psychologists to 1,065 white children, aged from 3 yr., 6 mo. to 11 yr., 5 mo., enrolled in the regular education track of kindergarten and elementary school in Italy.     

Concurrent validity of the Gardner Test of Visual-Motor Skills

Scores on the Test of Visual-motor Skills, Developmental Test of Visual-motor Integration, and Bender-Gestalt test were compared for a sample of 44 elementary school children referred for evaluation of learning disorders. While the tests shared common variance, the mean standard score on the Test of Visual-motor Skills was significantly lower than the means of the other two tests, suggesting caution in the clinical use of the new scale.     

The Utility of the Revised Life Orientation Test to Measure Optimism among Hong Kong Chinese

To examine the utility of the revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R) to measure optimism among Hong Kong Chinese, the psychometric properties of the revised and the original versions of the Life Orientation Test were compared. A total of 248 Hong Kong Chinese undergraduates were studied in the fall and 165 of these participants were tested again 5 months later. Results indicated that the LOT-R is a reliable and valid measure of dispositional optimism among Hong Kong Chinese. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the LOT-R represents a one-factor model of optimism better than does the original version. Despite its brevity, the LOT-R is psychometrically sounder than the original sclae. These findings point to the feasibility of replacing the original with the revised scale in future research among Hong Kong Chinese. However, the utility of the revised test in cross-cultural comparisons may still be limited by the absence of emic components. Further research on optimism in the Chinese people with the LOT-R should pay more attention to the identification of emic dimensions.     

Bender-Gestalt developmental scores: predicting reading and mathematics achievement

This study examined the relative importance of perceptual-motor processes and intelligence in predicting reading and mathematics achievement of children of low birthweight. Subjects were two groups of 153 children, ages 6 to 12 years, of either low (3 lb. or below, n = 72) or normal birthweight (n = 81) who participated in a comparative study on sequelae of children of low birthweight. To examine the utility of the Bender-Gestalt test in predicting academic achievement, Bender developmental scores, WRAT reading and mathematics scores, and WISC-R Full Scale IQs from both groups were compared and then intercorrelated separately. The mean comparisons indicated that children of low birthweight scored significantly lower on both Bender scores and reading achievement and had lower IQs than those of normal birthweight. Bender scores also appeared to have more utility for predicting reading and mathematics achievement for children of low birthweight than for those of normal birthweight.     

Use of the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking in an Exploratory Study of Creativity in Hong Kong Primary School Children: A Cross-cultural Comparison

This exploratory study reports an empirical attempt to (1) establish inter-scorer and parallel-forms reliabilities as well as convergent validity of the Chinese version of the TTCT, (2) measure the level of fluency, flexibility, and originality in 10–12 year-old Hong Kong children, and (3) compare the scores of the Hong Kong sample with those from other studies. The Figural and Verbal Forms A and B were administered. The overall results showed high inter-rater reliability of the Chinese version of the Test. The parallel-forms reliability between the Verbal Forms (P > 0.001) of the Test was higher than that between the Figural Forms (P > 0.05). The Hong Kong results on the Figural Test were generally higher than those obtained in Taiwan, Singapore, and USA, but slightly lower than the German results. This trend in the results was reversed on the Verbal Forms. The absence of sex differences on the TTCT was noted.     

Visual perceptual abilities of Chinese-speaking and English-speaking children

This paper reports an investigation of Chinese-speaking and English-speaking children's general visual perceptual abilities. The Developmental Test of Visual Perception was administered to 41 native Chinese-speaking children of mean age 5 yr. 4 mo. in Hong Kong and 35 English-speaking children of mean age 5 yr. 2 mo. in Melbourne. Of interest were the two interrelated components of visual perceptual abilities, namely, motor-reduced visual perceptual and visual-motor integration perceptual abilities, which require either verbal or motoric responses in completing visual tasks. Chinese-speaking children significantly outperformed the English-speaking children on general visual perceptual abilities. When comparing the results of each of the two different components, the Chinese-speaking students' performance on visual-motor integration was far better than that of their counterparts (ES = 2.70), while the two groups of students performed similarly on motor-reduced visual perceptual abilities. Cultural factors such as written language format may be contributing to the enhanced performance of Chinese-speaking children's visual-motor integration abilities, but there may be validity questions in the Chinese version.     

Predictors of suicide ideation and depression in Hong Kong adolescents: perceptions of academic and family climates

The unique dimensions of perceptions of school and family contributing to depression and suicide ideation in Hong Kong adolescents were examined in two studies. In Study 1, among 327 Hong Kong Chinese female students ages 13-18, 47% reported some suicide ideation. Suicide ideation was significantly associated with depression, test anxiety, academic self-concept, and adolescents' perceived parental dissatisfaction with academic performance. The correlation between test anxiety and depression was especially high (r = .51). Study 2 examined how three different aspects of perceived family relationship were associated with depression and suicide ideation. Among 371 Hong Kong Chinese adolescents ages 14-20, 52.6% reported suicide ideation. Low levels of family cohesion and support and high levels of parent-adolescent conflict were positively related to depression and suicide ideation in both genders. Across both studies, depression mediated associations between academic- and family-related variables and suicide ideation. Findings underscore the importance of both academic and family climate in understanding depression and suicide ideation among Chinese adolescents.     

The Rorschach in the Context of Performance-Based Personality Assessment

Twenty-eight normal and 28 learning disabled children were given the Bender-Gestalt Test under instructional sets of low (standard) attention or high attention. Results failed to support the hypothesis that high attention instructions would lead to differential recall performance of the diagnostic groups. Normal children produced better designs during recall than learning disabled children regardless of instructional set. The evidence suggests that standard Bender instructions should not be altered in an attempt to elicit recall performance differences.     

Comparison of the Trail Making and Color Trails Tests in a Chinese context: a preliminary report

The Color Trails Test developed as a culturally fair analogue of the Trail Making Test, was used to examine the relationship between the two tests with 35 undergraduate Chinese in Hong Kong recruited as the subjects. The scores on these two tests of the 12 men and 23 women were significantly correlated .71. The equivalence of the Trail Making and Color Trails Tests when applied to Chinese in Hong Kong was discussed.     

Screening for autism in young children: The Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) and other measures

The literature on the importance of early identification and early intervention for children with developmental disabilities such as autism continues to grow. The increased prevalence of autistic spectrum disorders has fostered research efforts on the development and validation of autism-specific screening instruments for use with young children. There are currently several such autism-specific screening tools meant to be used with young children in various stages of development. Data from a few of these screening instruments have been published, and they include the Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT), Pervasive Developmental Disorders Screening Test (PDDST), Screening Tool for Autism in Two year olds (STAT), Checklist for Autism in Toddlers-23 (CHAT-23), and the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT). In this review, these five tools designed for use with children under three years old will be highlighted. In particular, the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) will be discussed.     

Role of personal endorsement of outgroup members' distinctive values and need for cognitive closure in attitude towards the outgroup

The present study was designed to examine the role of the perceived culture of the outgroup and the perceiver's cognitive style on the intergroup process. We conducted a survey among mainland Chinese college students to discover the role of their personal endorsement of Hong Kong Chinese's distinctive values and need for cognitive closure in predicting their attitude towards the Hong Kong Chinese outgroup. Results showed that mainland Chinese who gave a higher endorsement of Hong Kong Chinese values were more likely to show a positive attitude towards Hong Kong Chinese, especially for people with a higher need for cognitive closure. These results were discussed in terms of the function of shared social reality on the formation of positive intergroup attitude. Future directions for intergroup research were proposed based on these findings.     

Redundancy in perceptual-motor testing: confirmation and generalization.

The Developmental Test of Visual-motor Integration was administered to 63 children in regular classrooms and 51 children in Special Education. Prediction based on total score (r = .68) was similar to a multiple R utilizing only five scores (.67). The over-all raw test score, based on all 24 designs, correctly classified 85% of the children while a combined abbreviated score utilizing only 5 designs achieved an 80% differentiation. Results were interpreted as confirming the hypothesis of redundancy in this perceptual-motor test.     

The Hong Kong version of the Oxford Cognitive Screen (HK-OCS): validation study for Cantonese-speaking chronic stroke survivors

This study reports the validation of the Hong Kong version of Oxford Cognitive Screen (HK-OCS). Seventy Cantonese-speaking healthy individuals participated to establish normative data and 46 chronic stroke survivors were assessed using the HK-OCS, Albert’s Test of Visual Neglect, short test of gestural production, and Hong Kong version of the following assessments: Western Aphasia Battery, MMSE, MoCA, Modified Barthel Index, and Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scale. The validity of the HK-OCS was appraised by the difference between the two participant groups. Neurologically unimpaired individuals performed significantly better than stroke survivors on the HK-OCS. Positive and significant correlations found between cognitive subtests in the HK-OCS and related assessments indicated good concurrent validity. Excellent intra-rater and inter-rater reliabilities, fair test–retest reliability, and acceptable internal consistency suggested that the HK-OCS had good reliability. Specific HK-OCS subtests including semantics, episodic memory, number writing, and orientation were the best predictors of functional outcomes.     

Intelligence in Hong Kong measured for Spearman's g and the visuospatial and verbal primaries

Values for Spearman's g for Hong Kong are calculated from data derived from the administration of Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices to several thousand children. The results indicate that the mean IQ in Hong Kong for the mid 1980s is approximately 108 in relation to a Caucasian mean of 100 for the United States and the United Kingdom. Values for the spatial and perceptual speed primaries are also substantially higher in Hong Kong. On the other hand Hong Kong children are relatively weak on the word fluency primary. The pattern of abilities of Chinese Hong Kong children is broadly similar to that obtained on other Mongoloid populations.     

Keep 'Gestalt' in the name of the test: the curious name permutations of the Bender-Gestalt Test

The Bender-Gestalt Test is often referred to in the literature by several different names, or just as the Bender Test, without the term Gestalt. As a consequence, the figures of the test are frequently called Bender figures or Bender designs, terms which are unjustified and misleading because the figures have been taken from Wertheimer's classical study of Gestalt laws. In this article, I trace the beginnings of the name of the test and its curious permutations, and I advocate the retention of the term Gestalt in the name of the test for logical and historical reasons.