Design fluency among normals and patients with closed head injury

A Design Fluency task was administered to 86 patients who had suffered closed head injury (CHI) with loss of consciousness and 87 normal control subjects. Subjects were asked to draw as many novel designs as they could in 5 minutes without scribbling, drawing a nameable object, or repeating a design that had been drawn previously. The mean performance of the CHI group was significantly poorer than that of the control group, with 47% of head injured performing defectively (below the 5th percentile of controls There was no significant relationship between Design Fluency and prorated IQ, psychomotor speed, or Word Fluency. The findings demonstrate that a standardized version of the “free condition” of Design Fluency is likely to be useful in the evaluation of patients with closed head injury.