Testing attention: Comparing the ANT with TVA-based assessment

Posner’s attention network model and Bundesen’s theory of visual attention (TVA) are two influential accounts of attention. Each model has led to the development of a test method: the attention network test (ANT) and TVA-based assessment, respectively. Both tests have been widely used to investigate attentional function in normal and clinical populations. Here we report on the first direct comparison of the ANT to TVA-based assessment. A group of 68 young healthy participants were tested in three consecutive sessions that each contained standard versions of the two tests. The parameters derived from TVA-based assessment had better internal reliability and retest reliability than did those of the standard version of the ANT, where only the executive network score reached comparable levels. However, when corrected for differences in test length, the retest reliability of the orienting network score equaled the least reliable TVA parameters. Both tests were susceptible to practice effects, which improved performance for some parameters while leaving others constant. All pairwise correlations between the eight attention parameters measured by the two tests were small and nonsignificant, with one exception: A strong correlation (r = 0.72) was found between two parameters of TVA-based assessment, visual processing speed and the capacity of visual short-term memory. We conclude that TVA-based assessment and the ANT measure complementary aspects of attention, but the scores derived from TVA-based assessment are more reliable.

[1]  R. Klein,et al.  Appraising the ANT: Psychometric and theoretical considerations of the Attention Network Test. , 2010, Neuropsychology.

[2]  M. Posner,et al.  Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation , 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[3]  R. D. Gordon,et al.  Executive control of visual attention in dual-task situations. , 2001, Psychological review.

[4]  Thomas Habekost,et al.  Selective and sustained attention in children with spina bifida myelomeningocele , 2013, Child neuropsychology : a journal on normal and abnormal development in childhood and adolescence.

[5]  Timothy A. Salthouse,et al.  Interpreting Reaction Time Measures in Between-Group Comparisons , 2002, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[6]  C. Bundesen,et al.  A neural theory of visual attention: bridging cognition and neurophysiology. , 2005, Psychological review.

[7]  M. Posner,et al.  Assessing the molecular genetics of attention networks , 2002, BMC Neuroscience.

[8]  C. Eriksen,et al.  Effects of noise letters upon the identification of a target letter in a nonsearch task , 1974 .

[9]  Kathrin Finke,et al.  Disentangling the adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder endophenotype: parametric measurement of attention. , 2011, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[10]  E. Rostrup,et al.  Persisting asymmetries of vision after right side lesions , 2006, Neuropsychologia.

[11]  I..  THE ATTENTION SYSTEM OF THE HUMAN BRAIN , 2002 .

[12]  J. P. Guilford,et al.  Fundamental statistics in psychology and education, 3rd ed. , 1956 .

[13]  Bruce D. McCandliss,et al.  Testing the Efficiency and Independence of Attentional Networks , 2002, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[14]  M. Corbetta,et al.  Control of goal-directed and stimulus-driven attention in the brain , 2002, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[15]  Peter Bublak,et al.  Staged decline of visual processing capacity in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease , 2010, Alzheimer's & Dementia.

[16]  Jin Fan,et al.  The activation of attentional networks , 2005, NeuroImage.

[17]  T. Salthouse,et al.  Correlates of within-person (across-occasion) variability in reaction time. , 2005, Neuropsychology.

[18]  C Bundesen,et al.  A computational theory of visual attention. , 1998, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[19]  Claus Bundesen,et al.  Patient assessment based on a theory of visual attention (TVA): subtle deficits after a right frontal-subcortical lesion , 2003, Neuropsychologia.

[20]  John Duncan,et al.  Attentional functions of parietal and frontal cortex. , 2005, Cerebral cortex.

[21]  R. O’Connell,et al.  Self-Alert Training: Volitional modulation of autonomic arousal improves sustained attention , 2008, Neuropsychologia.

[22]  S. Lehtonen.  Self-reported Inattention and Hyperactivity-impulsivity as Predictors of Attention Network Efficiency , 2007 .

[23]  J. Coull.  Neural correlates of attention and arousal: insights from electrophysiology, functional neuroimaging and psychopharmacology , 1998, Progress in Neurobiology.

[24]  Thomas Habekost,et al.  Visual attention capacity: a review of TVA-based patient studies. , 2009, Scandinavian journal of psychology.

[25]  M. Posner,et al.  Research on attention networks as a model for the integration of psychological science. , 2007, Annual review of psychology.

[26]  A. Lundervold,et al.  The attention network test: a characteristic pattern of deficits in children with ADHD , 2008, Behavioral and Brain Functions.

[27]  W. Brouwer,et al.  Clinical Neuropsychology of Attention , 1994 .

[28]  Tom Manly,et al.  Effects of modafinil and methylphenidate on visual attention capacity: a TVA-based study , 2010, Psychopharmacology.

[29]  Thomas Alrik Sørensen,et al.  Short-term storage capacity for visual objects depends on expertise. , 2012, Acta psychologica.

[30]  John Cotton,et al.  Fundamental statistics in psychology and education. 6th ed. , 1978 .

[31]  C Bundesen,et al.  Visual selection from multielement displays: measuring and modeling effects of exposure duration. , 1988, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[32]  C. Bundesen,et al.  Principles of Visual Attention: Linking Mind and Brain , 2008 .

[33]  C. Bundesen.  A theory of visual attention. , 1990, Psychological review.

[34]  R. Desimone,et al.  Neural mechanisms of selective visual attention. , 1995, Annual review of neuroscience.

[35]  M. Posner,et al.  Mapping the genetic variation of executive attention onto brain activity , 2003, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[36]  R. Klein,et al.  Repeated measurement of the components of attention using two versions of the Attention Network Test (ANT): Stability, isolability, robustness, and reliability , 2010, Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

[37]  M. Posner,et al.  Orienting of Attention* , 1980, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[38]  Claus Bundesen,et al.  Prompt but inefficient: nicotine differentially modulates discrete components of attention , 2011, Psychopharmacology.

[39]  Carlos M. Gómez,et al.  Attentional deficit in dyslexia: a general or specific impairment? , 2004, Neuroreport.

[40]  M. Posner,et al.  Cognitive and emotional influences in anterior cingulate cortex , 2000, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[41]  M. Bellgrove,et al.  Sustained attention in traumatic brain injury (tbi) and healthy controls: enhanced sensitivity with dual-task load , 2005, Experimental Brain Research.

[42]  M. Posner,et al.  Assessing the heritability of attentional networks , 2001, BMC Neuroscience.

[43]  S. Vangkilde,et al.  Mindfulness training affects attention--or is it attentional effort? , 2012, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[44]  J. Duncan.  EPS Mid-Career Award 2004: Brain mechanisms of attention , 2006, Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[45]  Claus Bundesen,et al.  Generalizing parametric models by introducing trial-by-trial parameter variability: The case of TVA , 2011 .

[46]  C. Spearman.  CORRELATION CALCULATED FROM FAULTY DATA , 1910 .

[47]  Joseph Krummenacher,et al.  Usability of a theory of visual attention (TVA) for parameter-based measurement of attention I: Evidence from normal subjects , 2005, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.

[48]  A. E. Maxwell,et al.  Fundamental statistics in psychology and education , 1943 .

[49]  J. Duncan,et al.  Systematic analysis of deficits in visual attention. , 1999 .

[50]  S. Kyllingsbæk.  Modeling visual attention , 2006 .

[51]  Jin Fan,et al.  Selective impairment of attentional networks of orienting and executive control in schizophrenia , 2005, Schizophrenia Research.

[52]  R. Parasuraman.  The attentive brain , 1998 .

[53]  J. Coull,et al.  Great expectations: temporal expectation modulates perceptual processing speed. , 2012, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[54]  W. Brown.  SOME EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS IN THE CORRELATION OF MENTAL ABILITIES1 , 1910 .