Reliability and Validity of the Rey Visual Design Learning Test in Primary School Children

ABSTRACT

The Rey Visual Design Learning Test (Rey, 1964, in Spreen & Strauss, 1991) assesses immediate memory span, new learning and recognition for non-verbal material. Three studies are presented that focused on the reliability and validity of the RVDLT in primary school children. Test-retest reliability and the reliability of the scoring protocol proved satisfactory. A verbalization strategy training improved test performance, which indicates that test items are sensitive to verbalization. Further research, especially with clinical samples, is needed to assess its validity and more normative data needs to be gathered. Suggestions for improvements in the test administration are discussed. It is concluded that the RVDLT is a potentially useful instrument to measure different aspects of visual memory in children.

ACKNOWLEDGMENts

The author would like to express his gratitude to Linda Nolting, Mark Krijgsman, Jacco van der Voort, Euclides Perigault Monte, Annette Kingma, Wilma Resing, and Samantha Bouwmeester for their contributions to this article.

Notes

1 L’éxamen Clinique en Psychologie (Rey, 1964) is often cited as a reference to the RVDLT. We checked this reference, but it does not contain any information about the test. It does contain information about a test which is similar in design, but calls upon verbal memory.