Abstract
Visuospatial attention and short-term memory allow us to prioritize, select, and briefly maintain part of the visual information that reaches our senses. These cognitive abilities are quantitatively accounted for by Bundesen’s theory of visual attention (TVA; Bundesen, 1990). Previous studies have suggested that TVA-based assessments are sensitive to inter-individual differences in spatial bias, visual short-term memory capacity, top-down control, and processing speed in healthy volunteers as well as in patients with various neurological and psychiatric conditions. However, most neuropsychological assessments of attention and executive functions, including TVA-based assessment, make use of alphanumeric stimuli and/or are performed verbally, which can pose difficulties for individuals who have troubles processing letters or numbers. Here we examined the reliability of TVA-based assessments when stimuli are used that are not alphanumeric, but instead based on line-drawings of fruits and vegetables. We compared five TVA parameters quantifying the aforementioned cognitive abilities, obtained by modeling accuracy data on a whole/partial report paradigm using conventional alphabet stimuli versus the food stimuli. Significant correlations were found for all TVA parameters, indicating a high parallel-form reliability. Split-half correlations assessing internal reliability, and correlations between predicted and observed data assessing goodness-of-fit were both significant. Our results provide an indication that line-drawings of fruits and vegetables can be used for a reliable assessment of attention and short-term memory.
Highlights
Visuospatial attention, executive control, and short-term memory are essential in the daily human interaction with the environment, and deficits in these domains have devastating effects on the quality of life (Van Zandvoort et al, 1998)
We examined the reliability of TVAbased assessment using a different set of stimuli
Previous studies have shown that theory of visual attention (TVA)-based assessment based on letter report can yield sensitive and reliable measures for both visuospatial attention and short-term memory (Bundesen, 1990; Vangkilde et al, 2011)
Summary
Visuospatial attention, executive control, and short-term memory are essential in the daily human interaction with the environment, and deficits in these domains have devastating effects on the quality of life (Van Zandvoort et al, 1998). Five basic parameters can be estimated from this performance: the storage capacity of visual short-term memory (VSTM) K, the visual processing speed C, the minimum effective exposure duration t0, the efficiency of top-down selectivity α, and the distribution of attentional weights across the visual field ω. Each of these parameters represents a distinct facet of visual attention and disruptions in any may have a significant impact on the quality of life (Mitchell et al, 2010). Several clinical studies have shown that TVA-based assessment yields sensitive and reliable measures of cognitive abilities in patients with acquired brain injury, neurodevelopmental disorders, aging and neurodegenerative disorders, as well as neuropsychiatric disorders (see Habekost, 2015, for a review)
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