title: The structure of normal human attention: The Test of Everyday Attention.
abstract: A range of tests of everyday attention is described, based on ecologically plausible activities such as searching maps, looking through telephone directories, and listening to lottery number broadcasts. An age-, sex- and IQ-stratified sample of 154 normal participants was given these tests, along with a number of existing tests of attention. The factor structure revealed by this data set matched well contemporary evidence for a set of functionally independent attentional circuits in the brain, and included factors for sustained attention, selective attention, attentional switching and auditory-verbal working memory. The Test of Everyday Attention (TEA), which was developed and standardized on the basis of these subtests, has three parallel forms, high test-retest reliability, and correlates significantly with existing measures of attention. Furthermore, selected subtests successfully discriminate among a number of brain-impaired groups, including closed head injury versus age-matched controls, minimal versus mild Alzheimer's disease, and progressive supranuclear palsy patients versus age-matched controls.
authors.affiliation: MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: I H
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ridgeway
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nimmo-Smith
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011340:Problem Solving; D011594:Psychometrics; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013067:Speech Perception; D014796:Visual Perception