Relations of scores on children's embedded figures test with age, item difficulty and internal consistency

This study analyzes the Children's Embedded Figures Test by examining its internal consistency, test-retest reliability, the order of difficulty of the items, and the change of scores with age. Among the sample 337 boys and 287 girls who were between the ages of 6 and 11 years and in the first five grades of primary school scores increased significantly. The test presented moderate internal consistency (.86), and the lest-retest reliability after one year was .63. The order of difficulty of the items did not coincide with the order proposed by the test's authors and varied from grade to grade, i.e., in the Tent series Item 4 and in the House series Item 5 were among the most difficult.