Abstract
Analysis of cognitive functioning from gaze behavior might serve as an early indicator of age related decline of cognitive functions. Standard psychological tests like the digit-symbol substitution test or the symbol-digit modalities test is used exclusively in this regard. In this paper, we have designed and developed a digitized version of the digit symbol substitution test. Three different versions have been designed in order to derive deeper insights of the user behavior. The test-retest validation of the versions reveals good correlation across sessions. Further, the difference in gaze behavior which might be used as an indicator of cognitive functions is tested for two different age groups (13 participants <30 years and 11 participants >40 years). It is seen that the designed digitized version along with the usage of physiological markers like eye tracking bestows additional information and is sensitive to age related factors which might be used for the assessment as well as for the training purpose in rehabilitation systems. Results show that the performance can be analyzed using gaze and pupillometric features in addition to the conventional test performance metrics. We derived an index to measure the performance related to visuo-spatial functioning on one of the designed versions of the test. Results of this index on the number of fixations for two age groups are found to be separated in a statistically significant (p<0.05) manner. The age related difference (p<0.05) is also evident in the pupillometric responses obtained.
Highlights
Digit Symbol association test (DSST) is one of the test Fein, 2004)
Researchers have been exploring the use of digitized version of the pen and paper format of DSST that can offer a number of benefits
It is to be noted that the difference between the performance metrics is not statistically significant (p>0.05 using Mann-Whitney’s U Test (Hart, 2001)) indicating that both the paper version of the DSST (pDSST) and digitized DSST (dDSST) version 1 passed the testretest check in the current experimental setup
Summary
Digit Symbol association test (DSST) is one of the test Fein, 2004). Attempts have been made to digitize this test These computer-based tests allow automation of scoring, renders dynamic manipulation of the components in the task, and are sensitive to age (Salthouse, Letz & Hooisma, 1994) as well as the effects imposed by drugs (Mattila et al, 1994). These findings motivated us to study if we can get a deeper insight about the cognitive functionalities of healthy individuals with the help of this test
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