VISUAL RETENTION TEST PERFORMANCE IN EMOTIONALLY DISTURBED AND BRAIN-DAMAGED CHILDREN

The essential findings of this study were that there is no tendency for emotionally disturbed children to perform on a defective level on the Visual Retention Test-the observed incidence of defective performance (4%) was no higher than that found in normal children. The Visual Retention Test performances of a group of nondefective, emotionally disturbed children were compared with those of a matched group of nondefective, brain-damaged children. It was found that 4 per cent of the emotionally disturbed children and 28 per cent of the brain-damaged children made grossly defective performances as compared with expectations for their chronological and mental age. However, as compared with normal children, an unduly high proportion of emotionally disturbed children made borderline performances. It is concluded that grossly defective performance on the Visual Retention Test is an indicator of brain damage, is not likely to be caused by attention or concentration difficulties associated with emotional disturbance and can be utilized to aid in the discrimination between brain damage and psychogenic emotional disturbance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)