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Abstract

The Continuous Performance Test (CPT) is a widely used measure of sustained attention, which may rely on the efficiency of cognitive inhibition. We examined the relationships of age and sex with CPT performance among 341 randomly selected school children 6-15 years of age. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the hit rate, false alarm rate, and sensitivity of both the undegraded and the degraded CPT were associated with age by a quadratic relationship. The age-development curves for the hit rate and sensitivity were convex, whereas that for the false alarm rate was concave. Sex was associated with the hit rate and sensitivity on the degraded CPT only. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that sustained attention develops during the primary school ages. The data reported are essential for identifying children with conditions associated with sustained attention deficit, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as those at an increased risk for developing schizophrenia.

Multi-method assessment of ADHD characteristics in preschool children: Relations between measures

“…Given differences between boys and girls on measures of ADHD-characteristic behaviors (e.g., Greenberg & Waldmant, 1993; Lin et al, 1999; Newcorn et al, 2001) and findings that boys are more likely to exhibit ADHD-characteristic behaviors than girls (e.g., Gershon & Gershon, 2002), agreement between measures may have differed by gender. Despite these drawbacks, all of the correlations between presumed indices of the same ADHD component were small (Cohen, 1992) in size and are in line with the results of other studies (e.g., Collett et al, 2003; McGee et al, 2000).…”

“…; Greenberg, Kindschi, Dupuy, & Hughes, 1993), that are designed to have minimal language demands. Across different CPT versions, performance tends to vary as a function of age such that younger children generally produce more errors (Lin, Hsiao, & Chen, 1999). Gender differences have also been found, but may vary as a function of the CPT versions.…”

“…Gender differences have also been found, but may vary as a function of the CPT versions. Boys make more errors than do girls on typical versions of the CPT (Greenberg & Waldmant, 1993), but girls make more errors than do boys when processing demands are added to the task (e.g., CPTs with visually degraded stimuli; Lin et al, 1999). …”

“…For example, cognitive ability has been shown to impact performance on CPT-type tasks (Weyandt, Mitzlaff, & Thomas, 2002). Younger children typically produce more errors on the CPT (Lin et al, 1999) and are generally rated as having higher levels of inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive behaviors (Lahey et al, 2005) compared to older children, making age a relevant factor. Studies examining gender differences often find boys to be rated as exhibiting higher levels of ADHD-characteristic behaviors (e.g., Gershon & Gershon, 2002).…”

Prolonged maturation of auditory perception and learning in gerbils

“…If this is a valid measure, then Figure 2 indicates that Juvenile animals did not differ from Adults, as asymptotic performance was identical. False alarm rate has also been used as a measure of sustained attention in children, and this measure suggests that attention on these specific tasks matures by ≈5 years (Lin et al, 1999; Kanaka et al, 2008). If false alarm rate is a valid measure of attention, then Figure 3A demonstrates that Juvenile animals did not differ from Adults, as average false alarm rate was identical across AM depths.…”