Abstract
IntroductionLetter Cancellation tasks (LCTs) are a group of paper‐pencil based psychomotor tasks that are commonly used to assess cognitive functions.Lack of proficiency in the language of the test can lead to erroneous results on LCTs. This is particularly important in a country like India where most of the population is not fluent in English.Since most of the cognitive tests are in English, it greatly limits the population that can be used for cognitive testing. It is therefore essential to develop tests in vernacular languages like Hindi and compare the results obtained with tests in English.The present study evaluated the effect of Hindi and English language on performance of one, two and three letter cancellation task.Methodology50 healthy male volunteers between the age group of 18‐ 40 years were recruited for the study after taking their written, informed consent. The study was approved by the Institute Ethics Committee and funded by Indian Council of Medical Research.Subjects were asked to cancel out letters in One, Two and Three LCTs in Hindi and English language. Each LCT consisted of 960 letters with 25% as target letters.The total time taken to complete each test and number of errors were analyzed statistically using SPSS by unpaired t test.ResultsThe results revealed a significantly longer time to complete Hindi LCTs than English LCTs. The error rates were significantly more in Hindi one LCT as compared to English One LCT. The error rates in two and three LCT in Hindi were more than in English but the difference was not significant.ConclusionHindi is perhaps a more complex language as compared to English, thereby requiring more attention and visuo‐spatial processing. Indian subpopulation therefore needs a separate battery of cognitive tests in vernacular languages.
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