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THE BENDER GESTALT VISUAL MOTOR TEST IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Author(s) -
Robin Robert W.,
Shea John D.C.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1080/00207598308247478
Subject(s) - new guinea , psychology , normative , acculturation , test (biology) , cognition , gestalt psychology , developmental psychology , bender gestalt test , ethnology , projective test , anthropology , sociology , ecology , psychoanalysis , psychiatry , neuroscience , perception , philosophy , epistemology , ethnic group , biology
Although the Bender Gestalt Visual Motor Test has been used across cultures, evidence indicates that performance may be related to differences in experience including exposure to Western acculturation. Thus in Papua New Guinea (PNG), with relatively recent exposure to Western systems of education, it might be expected, particularly in view of available cognitive research data, that performance would lag somewhat by comparison with norms from American or other Western samples. Thus normative data for PNG is required before the V.M.T. may be systematically used for diagnostic work. The present paper describes the V.M.T. performance of 245 children from the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, and 74 Australian children living in the same area. V.M.T. scores were compared also with American data. Consistent with the research on cognitive development in the literature, V.M.T. scores for the PNG children seemed to be about three to four years delayed, though the same kind of decrease in error scores with chronological age was evident.