Chapter 5-8 Assessment and Treatment: Attention and Perceptual Disorders Flashcards
Are you ready to use your attentional resources on this flashcard game?
Hell to the yes.
What kind of perceptual organs are most involved when solving flashcard puzzles?
That’s probably vision.
How many attentional resources does human beings on average have?
tree fiddy
The book identifies two important caveats when it comes to dealing with attention. Name and explain these.
- Scrap “the attention”. Doesn’t exist.
- Different types of tasks calls for different types of
attention.
- Different types of tasks calls for different types of
- The assessment of attention should never be limited to performance on a single task.
- For example, recording of simple reaction time can
tell us something about the basic speed of
processing in a particular patient, but tells us little
or nothing about his or her ability to react flexibly
on a dual task, or to sustain attention over half an
hour.
- For example, recording of simple reaction time can
Name at least 2 paradigms that tests attention.
1) Stroop Test
- You know it, I know it, my mother might know it, and
everyone probably knows it.
2) Visual search task
- Search through irrelevant information/recognize
relevant information from noise.
3) Sustained attention to response test
- The Sustained Attention Test is a computer-based
task designed to measure a person’s ability to
withhold responses to infrequent and
unpredictable stimuli during a period of rapid and
rhythmic responding to frequent stimuli.
4) Posner Cueing Task
- Used to measure manual and eye-movement
reaction times to target stimuli in order to
investigate the effects of covert orienting of
attention in response to different cue conditions.
Can you assess attention using surveys?
To some degree. General difficulties can be identified with scales like Cognitive Failures Questionnaire and Rating Scale of Attentional Behaviour (RSAB).
Can you assess attention using observation?
Yeppely deppely doo. The book defines the clinical observation as one of the most important tools available.
According to McGurdi (the book) attentional tests can be categorized into two superordinate categories. Name these.
◆ speed or processing capacity;
◆ control or working memory.
Why is it beneficial to categorize these types of tests?
Shit varies, so it’s nice to be able to choose a relevant task for assessing the desired skill or lack hereof.
What’s the difference between processing speed and cognitive control?
What do you think? Stupid author of this stupid question.
The former assess the speed and capability of processing of dynamic information (e.g. reading speed).
The latter assess the capability to focus on a specific task or object for longer periods of time (self-control tasks).
Is it wise to test both divided attention and focused attention.
Yes. Just wanted to remind people of this distinction.
Describe in general terms how to assess divided attention.
The classic paradigm to test divided attention is a dual task, in which a subject is instructed to perform two or more tasks simultaneously.
* Example: The Determination Test (DT) of the Vienna Test System (Schuhfried, 2006) requires the division of attention between different stimulus modalities, namely visual and acoustic, as well as between different response possibilities, namely pressing a hand button or a foot pedal.
Describe in general terms how to assess focused attention.
When irrelevant stimuli can act as distractors, subjects have to focus on the relevant ones. Visual search tasks are attention tests that require some selectivity, as all stimuli are irrelevant except the ones designated as targets.
* Trailmaking is another good task example.
Is it fair to say that patients or subjects have poor attention if they perform the tasks slowly?
No. No it’s not. Don’t be mean just because they are slow. They might not become jetpilots but who cares.
*But seriously, neuropsychologists needs to be aware of this. Just because the patient doesn’t compare to the norm, doesn’t mean the end of the world.
Name disorders that can have a negative impact on attention.
Almost every disorder. I’ll give you a few but try and think of some yourself!
- Dementia
- Schizophrenia
- ADHD
What is Hemi-inattention (hemi-neclect)?
Hint: Morten Overgaard knows one or two things about this.
It is a disturbance in a preconscious aspect, i.e. our normally symmetrical orientation with respect to the outside world.
Give examples of ways to assess hemi-neclect.
Observation. Does the patient bumb into things.
Tests like the stroop test is a good measure as well.
What would be good guidelines to cope with attentional limitations?
◆ Avoid or reduce time pressure. ◆ Create structure. ◆ Keep subtasks separate when possible. ◆ Avoid interruptions. ◆ Determine priorities in advance.
Do you remember compensatory strategies? Good! Think of one(s) that might be helpful in rehabilitation of attentional deficits.
Time Pressure Management (TPM). It consists of a general self-instruction (‘Let me give myself enough time to do the task’) followed by four specific steps in the form of questions the patient has to ask himself.
1 Anticipate time pressure by analyzing stages in the task where two or more things have to be done at the same time.
2 Make a plan for things that can be done before the actual task begins.
3 Make an emergency plan to deal as quickly and effectively as possible with overwhelming time pressure.
4 Make regular use of the anticipatory plan and the emergency plan.
Which of the authors of chapter 6 is the manliest?
Tom Manly.
Finish the sentence.
“Neclect is classically associated with lesions to the right posterior parietal..”
”..but has been observed following damage to a variety of brain structures including the right prefrontal cortex and subcortical areas as well”.
Does natural and spontaneous recovery of neclect occur?
Yes.
What can cause visual neclect?
Often times it’s strokes.
Name four rehabilitation techniques relevant for visual neclect.
1) training patients to make compensatory left-ward scans
2) encouraging use of the left hand and arm,
3) prism adaptation therapy
- Prism lenses worn as spectacles induce an optical
deviation, making an object that is straight ahead
appear to be, say, to the right. When first wearing
such glasses, if asked to reach for the straight-
ahead object, individuals will tend to miss (the
misdirection reflecting the rightward distortion).
4) teaching self-alerting techniques
From a neuropsychological point of view the best known types of perceptual deficits are:
◆ auditory
◆ tactile
◆ visual
*A common term, ‘agnosia’, may be applied to all of them, implying
inability to know or interpret sensory experiences.
The auditory system includes:
The outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear where neural impulses are generated (sensory transduction) and are transmitted to the brain via the auditory nerve.
Define the term ‘auditory sound agnosia.
Auditory sound agnosia refers to a loss of the ability to
recognize common sounds (e.g. bell ringing, dog barking, and train, that is not due to cortical deafness). .
- Auditory agnosia is often associated with bilateral
lesions in the region of the superior temporal lobe
Define pure word deafness (verbal auditory agnosia).
Refers to the impairment in analysing/understanding spoken words in the context of preserved recognition of nonverbal sounds and relative preservation of spontaneous speech, reading, and writing.
Describe the steps of assessing pure word deafness.
Hint: Typical for auditory assessments in general.
1) ask the patient to discriminate softly spoken words or finger snaps.
2) an audiological assessment is required. This includes measures of pure tone audiometry and speech detection thresholds.
3) (Provided significant auditory sensory deficits and aphasia are excluded) proceed by asking the patient to discriminate whether spoken pairs of words and non-words are the same or different (house/house versus house/mouse, pef/bef)
- be aware of:
- Prevent lip reading
- Make sure the patient is able to ‘hold’ in mind and
compare two items. - Stimulus pairs may differ according to the
examiner’s voice and accent (use a native speaker
with clear articulation).
Define auditory amusia.
This refers to a loss of the ability to recognize familiar music (well- known melodies or a particular voice). Both hemispheres contribute to music appreciation and the anatomical correlates of amusia are multiple, underpinning the multifactorial nature of music.
Describe the guide to the assessment of disorders of touch by Caselli.
◆ Basic somaesthetic impairments include light touch, position sense, vibration, two-point discrimination, pain perception, and temperature (usually assessed by neurologists).
◆ Intermediate somaesthetic impairments include texture discrimination and simple form discrimination that is part of astereognosis (usually assessed by neurologists, sometimes by neuropsychologists).
◆ Complex somaesthetic impairments are disorders of pure forms of tactile agnosia, with preserved basic and intermediate functions.
