The relationship between selected personality variables and performance on the memory-for-designs test in a university sample.

Abstract

Basically, efforts were directed at establishing a relationship between personality traits and expressive behavior on the Memory-For-Designs Test. It was hypothesized (null) that there was no such relationship. Data analysis proved this true to a large extent. Two-hundred and forty-one Memory-For-Designs Test protocols were examined for closure difficulty, figure expansion, and figure constriction. Chi squares were then employed to compare those data with the personality type of the subjects. The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire provided that information. The major conclusion drawn from the data analysis was that regardless of his personality, a subject will perform like most other subjects in relation to Memory-For-Designs Test behavior. Differentiation between groups, on a gross level, was not obtained. Qualitatively, individual differences were glaring, but there was no quantifying procedure to summarize that data. The subjects were university students between the ages of eighteen and twenty-three, male or female, who were U.S. Citizens attending Emporia State University. Initially, they were given the personality test in groups. Subjects who met sample qualifications were asked to return for a follow-up test with the Memory-For-Designs Test. This phase was carried out individually. Data were compiled in terms of frequency of occurrence of subjects in a given cell and evaluated in two-way and one-way chi squares. A basis for the study was founded in research done on the Bender-Gestalt Test in light of the dearth of projective work on the Memory-For-Designs Test. This procedure allowed a sort of construct validity between the two tests. Principles used in defining the variables and devising the testing procedures were based on this presumed similarity. This also provided a framework for the development of logical hypotheses. Moreover, equating the Memory-For-Designs Test with the Bender-Gestalt Test established a wider theoretical formulation.