Signedon frame: Polymetric Company
on apparatus sticker: MICHAEL REESE HOSPITAL / AND MEDICAL CENTER
Inscribedon instrument: ROD AND FRAME APPARATUS, PORTABLE / MODEL V-1260-AR
on small inventory sticker: Michael Reese Hospital / 10046 / and Medical Center
FunctionThe rod and frame test is a psychophysical method of testing perception.
The subject's chin rests on one of the yellow pads and the two other pads wedge teh sides of the head in place. A curtain is draped over the head to block ambient light and outside visual cues. The experimenter rotates the overall box by grabbing the edge of it and turning it clockwise or counterclockwise. The knob at the lower right adjusts the orientation of the "rod" inside. The otuside rear of the box is calibrated to show the inclination of the box and the rod.
Historical AttributesThis rod and frame apparatus was used by Philip Holzman, Esther and Sidney R. Rabb Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Harvard University and Director, Laboratory of Psychology, McLean Hospital, in Belmont, MA to study the effects of psychotropic medication on selected cognitive and perceptual measures in schizophrenic inpatients at McLean Hospital in the early 1980s.
Primary SourcesGrant A. Killian, Philip S. Holzman, John M. Davis, and Robert Gibbons, "Effects of Psychotropic Medication on Selected Cognitive and Perceptual Measures," Journal of Abnormal Psychology 93, no. 1 (1984): 58-70. See p. 61 for the use of this object.
Riley W. Gardner, Philip S. Holzman, George S. Klein, Harriet B. Linton, and Donald P. Spence, Cognitive Control: A Study of Individual Consistencies in Cognitive Behavior, Psychological Issues, vol. 1, no. 4, monograph 4 (New York: International Universities Press, Inc., 1959), 67-76.
Herman A. Witkin and Donald R. Goodenough, Cognitive Styles: Essence and Origins. Field Dependence and Field Independence, Psychological Issues, monograph 51 (New York: International Universities Press, Inc., 1981).
[copies of these are in the instrument's file]
ProvenancePhilip S. Holzman, Esther and Sidney R. Rabb Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Harvard University and Director, Laboratory of Psychology, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, pre-1977; gift to CHSI, 2003.
Published ReferencesPsychotropic Medication on Selected Cognitive and Perceptual Measures," Journal of Abnormal Psychology 93, no. 1 (1984): 58-70. See p. 61 and table 2 for the use of this object.