Validation of the coin rotation test: a simple, inexpensive, and convenient screening tool for impaired psychomotor processing speed.
OBJECTIVE
The Coin Rotation Test is a simple, convenient, and cost-effective measure of psychomotor processing speed that has been used in neurologic examinations at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences system for almost 20 years. On the Coin Rotation Test, participants rotate a coin through serial 180 degree turns using the thumb, index, and middle fingers for 10 seconds. In the current study, we sought to validate the Coin Rotation Test on a hospital-based sample by determining the task's sensitivity and specificity in detecting psychomotor processing speed impairment on a well-established criterion measure, the Grooved Pegboard Test.


METHODS
Participants included a sample of 161 participants obtained in a hospital setting (86 neurology clinic, 79 waiting area family practice clinic) who volunteered to complete several tasks of motor functioning and the Coin Rotation Test.


RESULTS
The Coin Rotation Test was found to be significantly correlated with a number of measures of motor functioning, suggesting a high level of convergent validity. Using a binary receiver operator characteristic curve analysis, the Coin Rotation Test predicted fine motor and psychomotor processing speed impairment with 0.80 sensitivity and 0.62 specificity for dominant hand performance and 0.83 sensitivity and 0.43 specificity for nondominant hand performance when a cut-score of 13 or fewer coin rotations was used.


CONCLUSIONS
These results support the utility of the Coin Rotation Test as a convenient and inexpensive psychomotor processing speed screening tool in clinical settings.
Hill
B D
BD
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Neuropsychology Program, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI 02903, USA. bhill@lifespan.org
Barkemeyer
Charles A
CA
Jones
Glenn N
GN
Santa Maria
Michael P
MP
Minor
Kyle S
KS
Browndyke
Jeffrey N
JN
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D055815:Young Adult