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Continuous Performance Test
A continuous performance task, continuous performance test, or CPT, is any of several kinds of neuropsychological test that measures a person's sustained and selective attention. Sustained attention is the ability to maintain a consistent focus on some continuous activity or stimuli, and is associated with impulsivity. Selective attention is the ability to focus on relevant stimuli and ignore competing stimuli. This skill is associated with distractibility.Conners, C.K. & MHS Staff. (Eds.) (2000) Conners' Continuous Performance Test II: Computer Program for Windows Technical Guide and Software Manual. North Tonawanda, NY: Multi-Health Systems. There are a variety of CPTs, the more commonly used being the Integrated Visual and Auditory CPT (IVA-2), Test of Variables of Attention (T.O.V.A.) and the Conners' CPT-III. These attention tests are often used as part of a battery of tests to understand a person's 'executive functioning' or their capacity to sort and manage information. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neuropsychological Test
Neuropsychological tests are specifically designed tasks that are used to measure a psychological function known to be linked to a particular brain structure or pathway. Tests are used for cognitive neuropsychology, research into brain function and in a clinical neuropsychology, clinical setting for the diagnosis of deficits. They usually involve the systematic administration of clearly defined procedures in a formal environment. Neuropsychological tests are typically administered to a single person working with an examiner in a quiet office environment, free from distractions. As such, it can be argued that neuropsychological tests at times offer an estimate of a person's peak level of cognitive performance. Neuropsychological tests are a core component of the process of conducting neuropsychological assessment, along with personal, interpersonal and contextual factors. Most neuropsychological tests in current use are based on traditional psychometric theory. In this model, a per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sustained Attention
Attention span is the amount of time spent concentrating on a task before becoming distracted. Distractibility occurs when attention is uncontrollably diverted to another activity or sensation. ''Attention training'' is said to be part of education, particularly in the way students are trained to remain focused on a topic of discussion for extended periods, developing listening and analytical skills in the process. By age Measuring humans’ estimated attention span depends on what the attention is being used for. The terms “transient attention” and “selective sustained attention” are used to separate short term and focused attention. Transient attention is a short-term response to a stimulus that temporarily attracts or distracts attention. Researchers disagree on the exact amount of the human transient attention span, whereas selective sustained attention, also known as focused attention, is the level of attention that produces consistent results on a task over time. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Selective Attention
Attentional control, commonly referred to as concentration, refers to an individual's capacity to choose what they pay attention to and what they ignore. It is also known as endogenous attention or executive attention. In lay terms, attentional control can be described as an individual's ability to concentrate. Primarily mediated by the frontal areas of the brain including the anterior cingulate cortex, attentional control and attentional shifting are thought to be closely related to other executive functions such as working memory. General overview of research Sources of attention in the brain create a system of three networks: alertness (maintaining awareness), orientation (information from sensory input), and executive control (resolving conflict). These three networks have been studied using experimental designs involving adults, children, and monkeys, with and without abnormalities of attention. Research designs include the Stroop task and flanker task, which study executiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stimulus (physiology)
In physiology, a stimulus is a change in a living thing's internal or external environment. This change can be detected by an organism or organ using sensitivity, and leads to a physiological reaction. Sensory receptors can receive stimuli from outside the body, as in touch receptors found in the skin or light receptors in the eye, as well as from inside the body, as in chemoreceptors and mechanoreceptors. When a stimulus is detected by a sensory receptor, it can elicit a reflex via stimulus transduction. An internal stimulus is often the first component of a homeostatic control system. External stimuli are capable of producing systemic responses throughout the body, as in the fight-or-flight response. In order for a stimulus to be detected with high probability, its level of strength must exceed the absolute threshold; if a signal does reach threshold, the information is transmitted to the central nervous system (CNS), where it is integrated and a decision on how to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Impulsiveness
In psychology, impulsivity (or impulsiveness) is a tendency to act on a whim, displaying behavior characterized by little or no forethought, reflection, or consideration of the consequences. Impulsive actions are typically "poorly conceived, prematurely expressed, unduly risky, or inappropriate to the situation that often result in undesirable consequences," which imperil long-term goals and strategies for success. Impulsivity can be classified as a multifactorial construct. A functional variety of impulsivity has also been suggested, which involves action without much forethought in appropriate situations that can and does result in desirable consequences. "When such actions have positive outcomes, they tend not to be seen as signs of impulsivity, but as indicators of boldness, quickness, spontaneity, courageousness, or unconventionality." Thus, the construct of impulsivity includes at least two independent components: first, acting without an appropriate amount of deliberati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Absent-mindedness
Absent-mindedness is a mental state wherein a person is forgetfully inattentive. It is the opposite mental state of mindfulness. Absent-mindedness is often caused by things such as boredom, sleepiness, rumination, distraction, or preoccupation with one's own internal monologue. When experiencing absent-mindedness, people exhibit signs of memory lapses and weak recollection of recent events. Absent-mindedness can usually be a result of a variety of other conditions often diagnosed by clinicians such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression. In addition to absent-mindedness leading to an array of consequences affecting daily life, it can have more severe, long-term problems. Conceptualization Absent-mindedness seemingly consists of lapses of concentration or "zoning out". This can result in lapses of short or long-term memory, depending on when the person in question was in a state of absent-mindedness. Absent-mindedness also relates directly to lapses in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Test Of Variables Of Attention
The Test of Variables of Attention (T.O.V.A.) is a neuropsychological assessment that measures a person's attention while screening for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Generally, the test is 21.6 minutes long and is presented as a simple, yet boring, computer game. The test is used to measure a number of variables involving the test taker's response to either a visual or auditory stimulus. These measurements are then compared to the measurements of a group of people without attention disorders who took the T.O.V.A. This test should be used along with a battery of neuropsychological tests, such as a detailed history, subjective questionnaires, interviews, and symptom checklists before a diagnosis should be concluded. The T.O.V.A. has been shown to accurately identify 87% of individuals without ADHD, 84% of non-hyperactive ADHD, and 90% of the hyperactive ADHD, but should never be used solely as a diagnostic tool for those testing for attention deficit disorders or wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation that are excessive and pervasive, impairing in multiple contexts, and Developmental psychology, developmentally inappropriate. ADHD symptoms arise from executive dysfunction. Impairments resulting from deficits in self-regulation such as time management, Cognitive inhibition, inhibition, task initiation, and sustained attention can include poor professional performance, relationship difficulties, and numerous health risks, collectively predisposing to a diminished Quality of life (healthcare), quality of life and a reduction in life expectancy. As a consequence, the disorder costs society hundreds of billions of US dollars each year, worldwide. It is associated with other mental disorders as well as non-psychiatric disorders, which can cause additional impairment. While ADHD involves a lack of su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brain
The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for special senses such as visual perception, vision, hearing, and olfaction. Being the most specialized organ, it is responsible for receiving information from the sensory nervous system, processing that information (thought, cognition, and intelligence) and the coordination of motor control (muscle activity and endocrine system). While invertebrate brains arise from paired segmental ganglia (each of which is only responsible for the respective segmentation (biology), body segment) of the ventral nerve cord, vertebrate brains develop axially from the midline dorsal nerve cord as a brain vesicle, vesicular enlargement at the rostral (anatomical term), rostral end of the neural tube, with centralized control over all body segments. All vertebr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boredom
In conventional usage, boredom, , or tedium is an emotion characterized by Interest (emotion), uninterest in one's surrounding, often caused by a lack of distractions or occupations. Although, "There is no universally accepted definition of boredom. But whatever it is, researchers argue, it is not simply another name for Depression (mood), depression or apathy. It seems to be a specific mental state that people find unpleasant—a lack of stimulation that leaves them craving relief, with a host of behavioral, medical and social consequences." According to BBC News, boredom "...can be a dangerous and disruptive state of mind that damages your health"; yet research "...suggest[s] that without boredom we couldn't achieve our Creativity, creative feats." In ''Experience Without Qualities: Boredom and Modernity'', Elizabeth Goodstein traces the modern discourse on boredom through literary, philosophical, and sociological texts to find that as "a discursively articulated phenomenon.. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reaction Time
Mental chronometry is the scientific study of processing speed or reaction time on cognitive tasks to infer the content, duration, and temporal sequencing of mental operations. Reaction time (RT; also referred to as "response time") is measured by the elapsed time between stimulus onset and an individual's response on elementary cognitive tasks (ECTs), which are relatively simple perceptual-motor tasks typically administered in a laboratory setting. Mental chronometry is one of the core methodological paradigms of human experimental, cognitive, and differential psychology, but is also commonly analyzed in psychophysiology, cognitive neuroscience, and behavioral neuroscience to help elucidate the biological mechanisms underlying perception, attention, and decision-making in humans and other species. Mental chronometry uses measurements of elapsed time between sensory stimulus onsets and subsequent behavioral responses to study the time course of information processing in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cognitive Tests
Cognitive tests are assessments of the cognitive capabilities of humans and other animals. Tests administered to humans include various forms of IQ tests; those administered to animals include the mirror test (a test of visual self-awareness) and the T maze test (which tests learning ability). Such testing is used in psychology and psychometrics, as well as other fields studying human and animal intelligence. Modern cognitive tests originated through the work of James McKeen Cattell who coined the term "mental tests". They followed Francis Galton's development of physical and physiological tests. For example, Galton measured strength of grip and height and weight. He established an "Anthropometric Laboratory" in the 1880s where patrons paid to have physical and physiological attributes measured. Galton's measurements had an enormous influence on psychology. Cattell continued the measurement approach with simple measurements of perception. Cattell's tests were eventually abandoned in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
