CancellationTools: All-in-one software for administration and analysis of cancellation tasks.
In a cancellation task, a participant is required to search for and cross out ("cancel") targets, which are usually embedded among distractor stimuli. The number of cancelled targets and their location can be used to diagnose the neglect syndrome after stroke. In addition, the organization of search provides a potentially useful way to measure executive control over multitarget search. Although many useful cancellation measures have been introduced, most fail to make their way into research studies and clinical practice due to the practical difficulty of acquiring such parameters from traditional pen-and-paper measures. Here we present new, open-source software that is freely available to all. It allows researchers and clinicians to flexibly administer computerized cancellation tasks using stimuli of their choice, and to directly analyze the data in a convenient manner. The automated analysis suite provides output that includes almost all of the currently existing measures, as well as several new ones introduced here. All tasks can be performed using either a computer mouse or a touchscreen as an input device, and an online version of the task runtime is available for tablet devices. A summary of the results is produced in a single A4-sized PDF document, including high quality data visualizations. For research purposes, batch analysis of large datasets is possible. In sum, CancellationTools allows users to employ a flexible, computerized cancellation task, which provides extensive benefits and ease of use.
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Tinbergen Building, 9 South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK. edwin.dalmaijer@psy.ox.ac.uk.
Edwin S
ES
Dalmaijer
Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Stefan
S
Van der Stigchel
Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.|Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience and Center of Excellence for Rehabilitation Medicine, University Medical Center Utrecht and Rehabilitation Center de Hoogstraat, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Tanja C W
TCW
Nijboer
Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Tim H W
THW
Cornelissen
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Tinbergen Building, 9 South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK.|Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Masud
M
Husain
D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D012984:Software; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
Cancellation tasks; Computerized testing; Neglect syndrome; Spatial attention; Visual search