Bender Gestalt Recall as a measure of short-term visual memory in children and adolescents with psychotic and other severe disorders.

Abstract

To investigate the short-term visual memory ability of children and adolescents with severe psychiatric disorders, 82 child and adolescent inpatients and day hospital patients in a state psychiatric hospital were administered the Bender Gestalt Test as part of a psychological assessment and then asked to reproduce the designs from memory. No significant differences were found between groups on either the Bender Gestalt Recall, or the WISC-III IQs and the Digit Span and Symbol Search subtests for Psychotic Disorders (Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder, Psychosis Not Otherwise Specified), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Mood Disorders or Mood Disorders with co-morbid Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The Coding subtest scores of the Psychotic Disorders group were significantly lower than the ADHD group. Analyses showed that the Bender Gestalt Recall was significantly related to age. Performance IQ, and sex. The results were discussed in terms of both the poor cognitive functioning of children and adolescents with persistent, severe mental illness, and the importance of developmental level when using the Bender Gestalt Recall as a rough measure of short-term visual memory.