UCancellation: A new mobile measure of selective attention and concentration

Abstract

Measuring selective attention in a speeded task can provide valuable insight into the concentration ability of an individual, and can inform neuropsychological assessment of attention in aging, traumatic brain injury, and in various psychiatric disorders. There are only a few tools to measure selective attention that are freely available, psychometrically validated, and can be used flexibly both for in-person and remote assessment. To address this gap, we developed a self-administrable, mobile-based test called "UCancellation" (University of California Cancellation), which was designed to assess selective attention and concentration and has two stimulus sets: Letters and Pictures. UCancellation takes less than 7 minutes to complete, is automatically scored, has multiple forms to allow repeated testing, and is compatible with a variety of iOS and Android devices. Here we report the results of a study that examined parallel-test reliability and convergent validity of UCancellation in a sample of 104 college students. UCancellation Letters and Pictures showed adequate parallel test reliability (r = .71-.83, p < 0.01) and internal consistency (ɑ = .73-.91). It also showed convergent validity with another widely used cancellation task, d2 Test of Attention (r = .43-.59, p < 0.01), and predicted performance on a cognitive control composite (r = .34-.41, p < 0.05). These results suggest that UCancellation is a valid test of selective attention and inhibitory control, which warrants further data collection to establish norms.

Keywords: Cancellation; Inhibitory control; Selective attention; Software; Validation.

Fig. 1

Screenshots of UCancellation Letters (top) and Pictures (bottom). A countdown timer is present in the top left corner of the screen and a green arrow can be pressed to advance to the next line (if row time has not been exceeded)

Fig. 2

Violin plot ( Hoffmann 2021) of Concentration Performance in UCancellation Letters and UCancellation Pictures groups in session 1 (S1) and session 2 (S2). Wider parts of the violin plot indicate a higher probability for a data point to occur in a certain section

Fig. 3

Scatter plot of Concentration Performance in UCancellation Pictures (N = 53) and UCancellation Letters (N = 48) across two sessions. Two outliers were removed from the UCancellation Letters group based on performance in the second session

Fig. 4

Scatter plots of Concentration Performance in UCancellation Pictures (left column) and UCancellation Letters (right column) in relation to d2 (row 1), the EXAMINER Cognitive Control composite (row 2) and Countermanding RT measures (rows 3–5)