Authors:

Robertson, I.H., Ward, T., Ridgeway, V. & Nimmo-Smith, I.

Reference:

Year of publication:

1996

CBU number:

3379

Abstract:

A range of tests of everyday attentional measures is described, based on ecologically-plausible activities such as searching maps, looking up telephone directories, and listening to lottery number broadcasts. An age-, sex- and IQ-stratified sample of 154 normal subjects were given these tests, along with a number of existing tests of attention. The factor structure revealed by this dataset matched well contemporary evidence for a set of functionally independent attentional circuits in the brain, and included factors for sustained attention, selective attention, attentional switching and auditory-verbal working memory. The Test of Everyday Attention (TEA) which was developed and standardised on the basis of these subtests has three parallel forms, has high test-retest reliability, and correlates significantly with existing measures of attention. Furthermore, selected subtests successfully discriminate among a number of brain-impaired groups, including closed head injury versus age-matched controls, and minimal versus mild Alzheimer's Disease.