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Multi-target visual search organisation across the lifespan: Cancellation task performance in a large and demographically stratified sample of healthy adults

Jeroen S. Benjamins, Edwin S. Dalmaijer, Antonia F. Ten Brink, Tanja C.W. Nijboer, Stefan Van der Stigchel
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/307520
Jeroen S. Benjamins
1Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Netherlands
6Department of Social, Health, and Organisational Psychology, Utrecht University, Netherlands
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Edwin S. Dalmaijer
2MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
3Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
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Antonia F. Ten Brink
1Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Netherlands
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Tanja C.W. Nijboer
1Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Netherlands
4Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, University Medical Centre, Utrecht, Netherlands
5Centre of Excellence for Rehabilitation Medicine, Rehabilitation Centre de Hoogstraat, Utrecht, Netherlands
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Stefan Van der Stigchel
1Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Netherlands
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Abstract

Highlights

  • - Cancellation tasks are useful clinical tools that probe many cognitive modules

  • - We used cancellation tests on 523 participants of different ages, sex, and education

  • - We provide cancellation task norm scores for indices computed from a big sample

  • - Cancellation indices include attention bias, processing speed and search organisation

  • - About a quarter of the healthy population shows relatively disorganised search

Abstract It is important that accurate tests exist to assess cognition in various groups of individuals. One popular test of attention and executive functioning is the cancellation task, in which participants perform multi-target visual search to find and ‘cancel’ targets among distractors. Although cancellation tasks have been used extensively with neurological patients, it is only partly clear whether performance is affected by demographic variables such as age and education, which can vary wildly among patients. Here, we describe performance in a sample of 523 healthy participants who participated in a web-based cancellation task. Specifically, we examined indices of spatial bias, processing speed, perseveration and revisiting behaviour, and search organisation. In this sample, age, sex, and level of education did not affect cancellation performance. A cluster analysis identified four cognitive profiles: Participants who make many omissions (N=18), who make many revisits (N=18), who have relatively poor search organisation (N=125), and who have relatively good search organisation (N=362). We advise neurologists and neuropsychologists to exercise caution when interpreting scores pertaining to search organisation in patients: Given the large proportion of healthy individuals with poor search organisation, disorganised search in patients might be pre-existing rather than disorder-related. Finally, we include norm scores for indices of spatial bias, perseverations and revisits, processing speed, and search organisation for a popular cancellation task.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Masud Husain for reading and commenting on an earlier version of this manuscript. ESD was supported through a European Union FP7 Marie Curie ITN grant (606901).

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted August 10, 2018.
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Multi-target visual search organisation across the lifespan: Cancellation task performance in a large and demographically stratified sample of healthy adults
Jeroen S. Benjamins, Edwin S. Dalmaijer, Antonia F. Ten Brink, Tanja C.W. Nijboer, Stefan Van der Stigchel
bioRxiv 307520; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/307520
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Multi-target visual search organisation across the lifespan: Cancellation task performance in a large and demographically stratified sample of healthy adults
Jeroen S. Benjamins, Edwin S. Dalmaijer, Antonia F. Ten Brink, Tanja C.W. Nijboer, Stefan Van der Stigchel
bioRxiv 307520; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/307520

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