Benton's visual retention test in the differentiation of depression and early dementia.

Abstract

The study examined the effectiveness of Benton's (1955) Visual Retention Test in discriminating between depression and early dementia. The test was given, in three versions, using the three different methods of administration in balanced order, to a group of 18 depressed patients and to a group of 18 patients referred because of the suspicion of early dementia, and subsequently confirmed as dementing after a follow‐up of at least a year. The depressives performed considerably worse than Benton' control group, but the demented patients were much worse than Benton' brain‐damaged group, so there was still a useful discrimination. The standard administration (A) turned out to be the best of the three for this particular purpose.