The original version was developed by Porteus when he was head teacher of the Victorian Education Department's first special school in Melbourne, Australia.
Porteus asserted that, like the Binet-Simon scale, it is a valuable supplement in evaluating subjects' foresight and planning abilities.
Porteus considered that this capacity was essential for adaptation to practical life situations and the failure of tests to measure it resulted in flawed diagnoses and inadequate assessments.
The number of seconds to finish each maze is an indicator of cognitive efficiency, since time may be spent on apparently fast but incorrect decisions.
Participant scores are calculated by summing errors that include touching lines within the maze, cutting corners and lifting the pen/finger.
Many early comparisons with other intelligence tests found moderate to high correlation coefficients.
[11] To assess the validity of Q scores, O' Keefe compared the performance of high and low impulse groups.
This found no difference in Q scores based on ratings in institutionalized, delinquent, non-delinquent and extreme groups.
The original Porteus Maze test was introduced in August 1914 during a session held by the Education Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
[21] Statistically significant enhancement was measured with senior primary and junior secondary students over just eight sessions with OZNAKI in lieu of other math lessons.
[citation needed] Maze tests are used in many areas for its measurements of qualities such as self-control, tact, prudence and planning.
Researchers concluded that chlorpromazine had no significant effect on test performance or clinical behavior.
In a neuropharmacology study the Porteus maze along with the Tower of London test was used with survivors of severe head trauma.
The test also demonstrated sensitivity to loss of social function and planning capacity following psychosurgery.