On the historical and conceptual background of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.

Full Abstract

In this paper, we describe the development of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). We trace the history of sorting tasks from the studies of Narziss Ach on the psychology of thinking, via the work of Kurt Goldstein and Adhémar Gelb on brain lesioned patients around 1920 and subsequent developments, up to the actual design of the WCST by Harry Harlow, David Grant, and their student Esther Berg. The WCST thus seems to originate from the psychology of thinking ('Denkpsychologie'), but the test, as it is used in clinical neuropsychological practice, was designed by experimenters working within the behaviorist tradition. We also note recent developments suggesting that, contrary to the general impression, implicit learning may play a role in WCST-like discrimination learning tasks.

Author information

Author/s: Eling, Paul (P); Derckx, Kristianne (K); Maes, Roald (R);

Affiliation: Radboud University Nijmegen, Nici, Biological Psychology, P.O. Box 9104, 6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands. p.eling(-atsign-)nici.ru.nl

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Historical Article; Journal Article

Journal: Brain and cognition (Brain Cogn), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Aug; vol 67 (issue 3) : pp 247-53

Dates: Created 2008/06/30; Completed 2008/07/28;

PMID: 18328609, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.