The Knox Cube Imitation Test (KCIT, or CIT, or KCT) was developed as a nonverbal intelligence test developed by Dr. Howard Andrew Knox, a medical officer at Ellis Island. It was first published as a pamphlet in 1913, and then in 1914 as a paper in The Journal of the American Medical Association.A scale, based on the work at Ellis Island, for estimating mental defect, Howard A. Knox, The Journal of the American Medical Association, March 7, 1914, LXII, 10, 741-747.
Knox wrote:
There were several other tests presented in his paper besides the cube test. In the cube test, 4 black 1" cubes were placed in a row, each cube separated by 4 inches from its neighbors. The test administrators takes a smaller cube and taps on the 4 1" cubes in increasingly complicated sequences. The test subject is requested, sometimes only by sign language, to repeat the sequence. If the cubes are numbered 1 through 4, the sequences in order are: a. 1,2,3,4 b. 1,2,3,4,3 c. 1,2,3,4,2 d. 1,3,2,4,3 e. 1,3,4,2,1 and so on.
Knox suggested that sequence a (1-2-3-4) is reasonable for a child of 4 years of age, sequence b (1-2-3-4-3) is suitable for a 5-year-old, sequence c (1-2-3-4-2) can be accomplished by a 6-year-old, sequence d (1-3-2-4) can be done by the average 8-year-old, and copying sequence e (1-3-4-2-3-1) is expected by most 11-year-olds. Some of these sequences were repeated as part of other published tests such as Arthur (1947) and Wright & Stone (1979).
Performance on the Knox Cube Imitation Test is correlated with both verbal IQ and performance IQ.Knox's cube imitation test : A historical review and an experimental analysis, John T. E. Richardson, Brain and cognition, 2005, vol. 59, no2, pp. 183-213 ISSN 0278-2626
See also Henry H. Goddard Vineland Training School Simon (game) N-back
Notes
External links Knox's "Cube Imitation" Test, from Knox's "Cube Imitation" Test Knox, H.A. …, John Michael Linacre, Rasch Measurement Transactions, 1999, 13:3 p. 708