Deployment, encoding: how is attention measured

How long can we stay attentive? What affects attention? What kind of attention do we need to learn to read or solve an equation?

Answering these seemingly innocuous questions is a challenge that researchers have been grappling with for some time. For attention or its deficit takes many forms. Some people look but don't notice anything, don't make meaningful connections, some are attentive, 5 seconds, then something catches their attention, then something else and they forget their original interest. Children and old people do not pay attention in the same way, neither do boys and girls... Some individuals are able to concentrate easily while a sigh is enough to disturb others; some memorize easily while others remember only at the cost of repeated and tiresome offers.

It is understandable that this is a complex activity that goes far beyond formulas like "children can't stay focused for more than 15 minutes," when they can stay riveted for hours to a video game, movie or story that interests them without showing the slightest lapse in concentration.

A start: separating acquisition and processing

Researchers have separated the phenomenon into two main activities: deployment and encoding.

First attention is mobilized and channeled, this is "deployment": arousal, selective attention, sustained attention. The selective attention refers to the discernment, to the detection whereas the sustained attention concerns rather the concentration.

The deployment allows the acquisition of the relevant data, those worthy of the interest. These data that must be remembered, processed, linked, classified despite the presence of distractors. So we come to encoding.

Encoding concerns attentional span (the amplitude of what we can handle, e.g., how many images per second), resistance to interference and mental manipulation.

With these distinctions made, researchers have developed various tests that can be referred to, especially since these tests have been administered to thousands of people and have fairly reliable evaluation scales whose limits are known. But everyone will agree that none of these tests measure "attention". One is not attentive for the sake of being attentive, one is attentive to something and the very concept of attention only makes sense in relation to an activity, hence the many limitations of these tests.

Here are a few:

Deployment

• Selective attention
  
  
• Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT)
  Provides good indicators for detecting brain damage and various pathologies including some types of epilepsy, Parkinson's, aging, and drug abuse
  
  
• Focused Attention Test - d2 test
  Measures sustained attention span, inattention and spatial hemi-neglect.
  
  
• Visual Search and Attention Test (VSAT)
  Assesses general attention and in part sustained attention.
  
• Sustained Attention
  
  
• Continuous Performance Test (CPT)
  In this test, errors of omission reveal deficits in sustained attention or vigilance; errors of commission would reveal impulsivity and inattention. If the subject responds more slowly at the end of the test than at the beginning, this would indicate difficulty with sustained attention.

Encoding measures

• Attentional span
  
  
• California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT)
  Measures general verbal learning, response discrimination ability, learning strategy, serial position effect, proactive effect, and acquisition rate. Characterizes learning and memory profiles of several types of neurological disorders
  
  
• Resistance to interference
  
  
• Auditory Consonant Trigrams (CCC) or Brown-Peterson
  Measures short-term memory and also divided attention and information processing ability. Can also detect people with mild concussion.
  
• Mind manipulation
  
  
• PASAT (Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test)
  This test assesses information processing ability, sustained attention, and divided attention.
  
  
• Brief Test of Attention (BTA)
  Measures auditory divided attention skills.

Knowing whether or not an attention problem is physiological in origin, whether a sudden change in behavior would be related to a concussion (soccer), medication or drug, can make a big difference in an intervention.

Attention span can be influenced by things like an environment that is too noisy or stressful, as well as other factors such as lack of sleep, a lifestyle that is too sedentary or with too many hours at the screen or at work, by an unbalanced diet (too many sugars, vitamin deficiencies), by acute bullying or physical and emotional abuse. All of these factors can be corrected to some extent.

The causes of a decline in attention span can be multiple, but once you have a measure, you can already build on something.

References

Quelques-meures-neuropsychologiques-de-l'attention - Hélène Poissant, Université du Québec à Montréal, EHR - 2003
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Helene-Poissant/publication/242180117_Quelques_mesures_neuropsychologiques_de_l'attention/links/5b89458a299bf1d5a733ef62/Some-neuropsychological-measures-of-attention.pdf

Visual Attention - from Consciousness to Neuroscience - Jean-Claude Lecas - 1992 - Mardaga Editor - ISBN 2-87009-509-0
http://books.google.ca/books?id=fa0PiW8FLuAC&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10

• Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT)
  
• Focused Attention Test - d2 test
  
• Visual Search and Attention Test (VSAT)
  
• California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT)
  
• Auditory Consonant Trigrams (CCC) or Brown-Peterson
  
• PASAT (Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test)
  
• Brief Test of Attention (BTA)
  
• Continuous Performance Test (CPT)