Lafayette Pegboard

The Lafayette Pegboard Test can be used as a manipulative dexterity test. It is designed to measure a timed unilateral motor response. This unit consists of 25 round holes on a board, in which subject is to place pegs as quickly as possible. This test requires visual-motor coordination, and speed should improve over successive trials.

The Lafayette Pegboard is a physical, hands-on apparatus designed to evaluate an individual’s manual dexterity, fine motor speed, and hand-eye coordination. The physical testing board features 25 round holes arranged across the surface. Under the guidance of an on-site examiner, the candidate must place matching metal pins or pegs into these holes as quickly as possible to measure their timed, single-handed (unilateral) muscle response. This test requires high visual-motor coordination, and performance metrics are scored manually by hand based on speed and accuracy over successive trials.

What It’s Best Used For

• Screening manual labor applicants: Vetting incoming assembly line workers, product packagers, parts sorters, and electronics manufacturing technicians who rely on hand speed.
• Measuring unilateral motor response: Quantifying single-handed coordination parameters by evaluating the speed of dominant and non-dominant hands independently.
• Tracking mechanical trainability: Observing a candidate’s learning curves over successive trials to see how quickly their motor patterns adapt and improve under repetition.
• Evaluating clinical or physical rehab progress: Functioning as a milestone indicator for physical and occupational therapists to track coordination recovery following injuries or neurological events.

Lafayette vs. Purdue Pegboard