test was developed in 1920 by psychologist Samuel C. Kohs (1890-1984), a student of Lewis Terman, building on earlier and similar designs (such as Francis N. Maxfield's Color Cube Test).

Kohs described the 1920s version of the test as a series of 17 cards which increase in complexity as the test progressed. Test takers replicated the designs with painted blocks (each side was a single color or two colors divided by a diagonal line). The initial scores were based