Draw a Clock test??

Factual Questions
1

A friend of mine was given an psychiatric evaluation and he was given a battery of tests like the Themetic Appereption Test and the ol’ Rorshach and all kinds of fun things.

The results were fun to look over, but he was also given a Draw a Clock test. I asked him what it was, and he said that it involved drawing a clock. He wasn’t much help so I looked it up and it says-

"“By looking at the way a person draws a clock face,” Dr. Gruber says, “you learn about their perceptual process, visual and spatial abilities, drawing abilities, attention to left and right, memory, “executive skills” (planning, organizing, sequencing), and other neuropsychological capacities,” he says. “And some researchers have shown that particular nervous system deficits (e.g., a stroke in a certain area of the brain) are associated with certain kinds of deficits in the way a clock was drawn.”

This wasn’t specific enough for me. I mean, what can you really tell from a person’s picture of a clock? What does it say about a person if they use Roman Numerals, or dots instead of numbers, what does it say about them if they make the time 8:45 instead of noon?

And why a clock? I know there’s a Draw a Person test, and a Draw a Tree test- are there certain cases in which one would learn more about a patient from their tree drawing than their clock picture?

2

The Clock-Drawing Test has a good list of scoring criteria (and other background). Generally, it looks like you have to get the spacing right, the numbers right, and have the hands pointing at the time they ask you for. Also, someone who has a serious disorder will fail to get even close to a clock.

3

Right. My brother is taking some psyc courses, and has books with examples like this one and this. (Those are largish pdfs, see pages 5 and 6-7 respectively)

As you can see, there are some disorders that cause people to end up with some very un-clocklike things.

4

Very slight hijack…I read somewhere that in magazines, ads, and the like, the time 10:10 is displayed more than any other because the hands resemble a smilie face. Go figure.

5

Cecil speaks on why clocks in ads are always set at 8:20?, but mentions that 10:10 comes up almost as often.

6

You can tell a lot about whether a person has brain damage or Alzheimer’s. Clock face drawing is taken from a larger neurological battery. People, trees, or any free drawing can also be used for assessing certain neurological problems. The clock drawing is often used because a scoring system has been developed, making its interpretation more consistent. As a test, it has the virtue of being unfake-able–either you can draw it, or you can’t. If you can’t, there may be a problem. If you can, certain problems probably can be ruled out.