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. 2024 Feb;56(2):709-722.
doi: 10.3758/s13428-023-02078-5. Epub 2023 Feb 17.

Measuring children's sustained selective attention and working memory: validity of new minimally linguistic tasks

Kerry Danahy Ebert  1 , Giang T Pham  2 , Sophie Levi  2   3 , Benjamin Eisenreich  4   5
Affiliations

Measuring children's sustained selective attention and working memory: validity of new minimally linguistic tasks

Kerry Danahy Ebert et al. Behav Res Methods. 2024 Feb.

Abstract

This study introduces visual tasks using nonlinguistic stimuli that measure sustained selective attention (SSA) and working memory (WM), two constructs foundational to learning and associated with developmental disorders in children. Using an argument-based approach to validation, we examine whether each task (a) measures distinct constructs, (b) shows internal consistency, (c) captures a range of performance, and (d) relates to development as indexed by age. Participants included 71 children, ages 4-10, of whom 12 had parental concern for language/learning. The SSA task presented spatial locations within a long and uninteresting task, following the continuous performance task paradigm. The WM task presented paired location sequences of increasing length, incorporating key elements of the n-back and complex span paradigms. Controlling for age, tasks were found to be minimally associated with each other (r = .26), suggesting related but distinct constructs. Internal consistency was high, with split-half reliability of .94 (SSA) and .92 (WM); the stability of these estimates was supported by bootstrapping simulations. Task performance was evenly distributed, with minimal floor or ceiling effects within this age range. Performance was positively related to age (SSA r = .49; WM r = .53). Exploratory correlations with a measure of parental concern were significant for SSA but not WM. The results show that these new tasks can be used to measure children's SSA and WM in a visual domain with minimal linguistic influence. These tasks capture developmental changes in the early school years. Further investigation can examine their utility for classifying children with developmental disorders.

Keywords: Assessment; Cognition; Development.

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Conflict of interest statement

We have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A sequence of five trials in the sustained selective attention task
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Sample trials in the working memory task. Panel A shows a sample trial with two locations per sequence and a matching (“same”) pair of sequences. Panel B shows a sample trial with three locations per sequence and a nonmatching (“different”) pair of sequences. Within each trial, sequence 1 is compared to sequence 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Flowchart of sequence length adaptation in the working memory task
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Box plots of score distributions for sustained selective attention and working memory tasks. SSA = sustained selective attention; plotted in d’adj on the left vertical axis. WM = working memory; plotted in weighted accuracy on the right vertical axis
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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