Perceptual Maze Test Research Articles

Automated psychological testing: some principles and practice

Summary The present paper reviews briefly the principles which should guide the development of automated psychological test systems. These are illustrated by reference to research and development studies undertaken with the Perceptual Maze Test. The possible role of these tests in assessing treatment effects in neurology and psychiatry is discussed and an example of this type of application is presented.

Time as a Variable in the Performance of Hemisphere-Damaged Patients on the Elithorn Perceptual Maze Test

Eighteen LH aphasic patients, 11 LH nonaphasic patients, 19 RH patients and 30 normal controls were compared on the Elithorn Perceptual Maze Test (EPMT) under both timed (T) and untimed (U) conditions. Results show that (a) normals were superior to LH groups within the T, but not the U, condition; (b) normal and LH groups were superior to RH groups under both T and U conditions; (c) the 2 LH groups did not differ from each other and (d) the RH group without language difficulty was superior to the RH group with language difficulty in the T, but not the U, condition. Additional findings were that (a) RH patients were able to process significantly fewer dots for maze solution than LH patients, (b) the more aphasic the patient, the more he improved his score from the T to the U condition. The data were discussed in terms of differential processing in R and LH groups, the RH groups being more likely to be impeded by the visual and spatial features of the task, the LH groups by the language and sequencing features.

Optimal and suboptimal decisions in perceptual problem-solving tasks.

Certain perceptual problem-solving tasks can be formulated as multistage decision-making problems. The dynamic programming approach can then be used to find the optimal decisions. When constraints are imposed on the problem-solver's ability to scan his environment and to process information, simple algorithms for solving the problem can be constructed. The algorithms yield suboptimal solutions that may adequately describe the problem-solver's behavior. Elithorn's perceptual maze test is reanalyzed and the results of an illustrative experiment are presented and discussed.

Graph-theoretical properties of Elithorn's maze

The Perceptual Maze Test, originally devised by Elithorn and later further developed in collaboration with the author, is currently being used to study human perceptual problem-solving skills. It has been found that test performance is relatively independent of previously acquired skills; that it is impaired by certain forms of organic brain damage; and that it is related to certain mathematical properties of the test item structure. Hypotheses as to the nature of the solving processes employed by subjects led to the graph-theoretical matrix analysis of the item structure presented in this paper.

The Performance of Hemisphere-Damaged Patients on Spatial Intelligence Tests

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the bearing of the hemispheric side of the lesion, of language disturbances and of visual field defects on two intelligence tests loaded with spatial factors, such as Elithorn's Perceptual Maze Test and Raven's Progressive Matrices 1938. These tests were administered to right and left brain-damaged patients. The two hemispheric groups were divided into subgroups according to presence/absence of visual field defects and (within the left hemisphere group) of aphasia. Scores were analyzed by means of co-variance analysis, concomitant variables being age, years of schooling and visual reaction times (considered as a measure of the severity of the lesion). No significant difference was found between the performances of the two hemispheric groups on the Progressive Matrices. Right brain-damaged patients performed worse than left brain-damaged patients on the Perceptual Maze Test, but any significant difference disappeared when scores were adjusted for visual reaction times, which were slower in the right brain-damaged group. Aphasics performed worse than non-aphasic left brain-damaged patients on both tests, while patients with visual field defects performed worse than those without visual field defects on the Perceptual Maze Test only.

THE PERCEPTUAL MAZE TEST IN A NORMAL POPULATION.

This paper describes the performance of a panel of 540 Ss, on a perceptual maze test. Age and sex differences in performance are discussed and the relation of the test scores to other psychological measures is examined.

THE EFFECTS OF THE VARIATION OF TWO PHYSICAL PARAMETERS ON EMPIRICAL DIFFICULTY IN A PERCEPTUAL MAZE TEST

An improved version of a perceptual maze test, which has been shown to be sensitive to frontal and temporal lobe damage, is described. The present test possesses a fully binary structure and parameters describing the task are now more easily definable. An experiment is reported in which the effect of varying two of these parameters, size and density of pattern, was examined. In order to minimize differential practice effects, a 36 times 36 random Latin square design was used, 36 normal subjects being tested with 36 patterns. The results show that the effect of the variation of these two parameters on the difficulty experienced by the subject in solving the task is reilably pronounced. A third parameter ‘pattern’ is briefly discussed.

A PERCEPTUAL MAZE TEST SENSITIVE TO BRAIN DAMAGE.

A PERCEPTUAL MAZE TEST SENSITIVE TO BRAIN DAMAGE.

A MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF A PERCEPTUAL MAZE TEST.

A MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF A PERCEPTUAL MAZE TEST.

A group version of a perceptual maze test.

Two group versions of a multiple‐choice perceptual maze test are described. The test has been administered to two groups of normal subjects. The results show that the test has a high reliability and suggest that the material reliably samples an ability which is not normally measured by intelligence tests. It is tentatively suggested that this ability may be related to perceptual capacity. The importance of perceptual factors in determining intelligent behaviour is briefly discussed.