Bourdon Cancellation Test (1895)

"Only a lot of patience"

Bourdon's paper, "Comparative observations on recognition, discrimination and association", ran to 32 pages in the Revue philosophique. Alfred Binet reviewed it the same year in his new journal.¹

Binet placed Bourdon among those who thought psychologists should move past sensations to the higher functions of understanding. He also noted that experiments of this kind needed no apparatus, and that Bourdon had chosen letters and words as his material.¹

BINET, L'ANNÉE PSYCHOLOGIQUE, 1895

« … n'exigent point d'appareils, mais seulement beaucoup de patience, et quelques personnes de bonne volonté. »

"… need no apparatus, only a lot of patience and a few willing people." Binet on Bourdon's experiments.¹

TAKE IT · 45 SECONDS

Cross out a, e and r in text you can't read

Bourdon's subjects struck three target letters in text printed in a language they didn't know.

Targets

aer

Work row by row. Tap a mark again to undo it.

0:45

Letter mode uses generated pseudo-words, so nobody can read them. Square mode follows Toulouse and Piéron's idea of squares told apart by the position of an attached stroke.⁴ Layouts, timing and scoring are our own, and there are no norms. Missed targets are ringed when time runs out.

Letters, then squares, then dots

French psychology calls this the test de barrage: crossing out the same letters or signs in a series, as a measure of concentrated attention.⁹

1895

Bourdonkalo̶rmi

Letter cancellation to assess discrimination, with a, e and r struck in text in an unknown language.⁴

1904

Toulouse & Piéron□ ◻ ▫

Letters replaced by squares to remove cultural effects. Eight categories differ by the position of a stroke. The authors saw it as a measure of psychomotor efficiency.⁴

Later

Bourdon–Wiersma∴ ∷ ⁘

Based on Bourdon and the Dutch neurologist Wiersma: cross out every group of four dots. Used in stroke evaluation with up to 15 minutes allowed. A group version is among the tests UK trainee train drivers must pass.³

1941

Zazzo, two cancellationsA | B

René Zazzo built a two-sheet test from one of the oldest late-19th-century attention and discrimination tasks. It was meant to reach functions beyond the purely cognitive.⁴

1962

d2 Test of Attentiond̈ p d

The best-known modern cancellation test, from Brickenkamp. It belongs to the same family of cross-out tests of concentrated attention and has its own page in this archive.⁹

RENNESLaboratory founderBorn in Normandy in 1860. He brought experimental psychology into a provincial university course in 1891 and founded an experimental psychology and linguistics laboratory at Rennes in 1896.²

METHODA Wundtian in FranceHis Rennes laboratory followed Wundt's experimental model closely, at a time when few French academics championed the new scientific psychology.⁷

PERCEPTIONSpace and illusionHis 1902 book on the visual perception of space and the angle illusion that bears his name show where his research went after the cancellation study.⁸

References

[1]Binet, A. (1895). Review of Bourdon, "Observations comparatives sur la reconnaissance, la discrimination et l'association" (Revue philosophique, Aug. 1895, 153–185). L'Année psychologique, 2, 693–697. Persée.persee.fr

[2]Wikipedia contributors. Benjamin B. Bourdon (accessed 1 Oct 2026).en.wikipedia.org

[3]Wikipedia contributors. Dot cancellation test (accessed 1 Oct 2026).en.wikipedia.org

[4]L'examen individuel et la recherche en psychologie de l'enfant: historique du test de barrage. Bulletin de psychologie 13 (1960). Persée.persee.fr

[5]Repertorios cognoscitivos de atención, percepción y memoria (working paper). ResearchGate.researchgate.net

[6]Wikipedia contributors. Henri Piéron (accessed 1 Oct 2026).en.wikipedia.org

[7]Psychologies expérimentales: cultures expérimentales fin de siècle. Mil neuf cent (2006). Cairn.shs.cairn.info

[8]Wikipedia contributors. Bourdon illusion (accessed 1 Oct 2026).en.wikipedia.org

[9]Test de barrage. Grand dictionnaire terminologique, Office québécois de la langue française.vitrinelinguistique.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca

HOW TO CITE THIS PAGE

What's Your IQ. (2026). Bourdon Cancellation Test (1895). In Historical IQ Tests Archive. Retrieved October 1, 2026, from /en/historical-iq-tests/bourdon-cancellation-1895

EDITORIAL RECORD

First published2026

Last reviewed1 October 2026

Sources9: the 1895 review, French histories of the test de barrage and reference works

Open questionsBourdon's original timing and scoring; the date of the Bourdon–Wiersma version

Canonical URLwhats-your-iq.com/en/historical-iq-tests/bourdon-cancellation-1895

Related historical tests

The best-known descendant1962

d2 Test of Attention

Brickenkamp's d2 keeps Bourdon's basic act of striking targets among distractors. It adds tight time limits per row, which makes errors and speed easier to separate.

InteractiveTake it →

Same year, same idea1895

Kraepelin Continuous Arithmetic Test

Kraepelin measured sustained work with simple additions over long sessions. Like Bourdon's, his test made attention visible as a trace of work over time.

InteractiveTake it →

The reviewer's own programme1895

Binet-Henri Mental Tests

Binet reviewed Bourdon in the same volume where he and Henri set out their programme of individual psychology. Both argued for studying higher functions without apparatus.

InteractiveTake it →

Attention under conflict1935

Stroop Color-Word Test

Bourdon used unreadable text so that reading couldn't interfere. Stroop made reading interfere on purpose, by printing colour names in clashing inks.

InteractiveTake it →

Scanning plus switching1944

Trail Making Test

Trail Making also asks for fast visual search across a page. Part B adds a switching demand that plain cancellation tests don't have.

InteractiveTake it →

Part of the Historical IQ Tests Archive. Editorial content under CC BY-SA 4.0. Bourdon's 1895 paper and Binet's review are in the public domain.

BibTeX RIS