Psychological Test, Kent Kohs Blocks
date: label: date made
content: 1920s
name: label: maker
content: Kohs, S. C.
label: maker
content: Kent, Grace Helen
notes: label: Description
content: In her efforts to design useful clinical tests for children, psychologist Grace Helen Kent (1875-1973) introduced this modification of a set of blocks originally proposed by another psychologist, Samuel C. Kohs (1890-1984). Kohs proposed using a set of colored cubes as part of intelligence testing in his 1919 Stanford University dissertation. Kent shortened Kohs’ test and treated it as a test of special aptitude rather than general intelligence. She started using the test in 1922 at Worcester State Hospital and continued modifying the procedure into the 1930s. This version of the test has sixteen cubical blocks. Each side of a cube contains a different color (yellow, blue, red, white) or combination of colors (white/red, blue/yellow). A set of paper sheets held together with metal rings shows the designs that subjects were to match.
label: Description
content: For a related set of drawings, see MA.316372.20.
label: Description
content: As Hutt and Kent point out, the set of cubes resembled the Embossing Company Color Cubes, a children’s toy produced in Albany, New York.
label: Description
content: Compare to the description of Kent's Color Cube Test in the Stoelting catalog, 1936, p. 168 (#37000E).
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: R.B.W. Hutt, “Standardization of a Color Cube Test,” <I>The Psychological Clinic</I>, 1925, vol. 16, pp. 77-86.
label: Description
content: G.H. Kent, “Modification of the Kohs Block Design Test," <I>Journal of Applied Psychology</I>, 1934, vol. 18, pp. 578-598.
label: Description
content: S.C. Kohs, “The Block-Design Tests,” <I>Journal of Experimental Psychology</I>, 1920, vol. 3, pp. 357-376.
label: Description
content: G.H. Kent, <I>Mental Tests in Clinics for Children</I>, New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1950, esp. pp. 115-118, 146-47. An example of this book has number MA. 16372.31.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Psychology
label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Psychological Tests
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of David Shakow
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.316372.04
label: catalog number
content: 316372.04
label: accession number
content: 316372
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Psychological Test
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 cm x 13 cm x 13 cm; 1 3/16 in x 5 1/8 in x 5 1/8 in