The AttentionTrip: A game-like tool for measuring the networks of attention

Background: Recognizing that attention is not a unitary system, the Attention Network Test (ANT) and its variants were developed to measure the efficacy of the multiple components of attention. One potential weakness of these tests (ANTs) is that they are unengaging. This poses a problem when particular groups are tested (e.g., young children), when more stable measures of performance are desirable (and can only be achieved in longer testing sessions) and when repeated testing is necessary. New method: Here we describe the evolution of a game-like tool, which we call the AttentionTrip (c), that is suitable for investigating three isolable attentional networks (alerting, orienting, and executive functions). Results: Utilizing this tool we were able to generate reasonable network scores for alerting, executive control (from both the flanker and Simon effects), endogenous orienting and, after some motivated modifications, exogenous orienting. Comparison with existing method(s): Split-half reliabilities of the alerting and executive (flanker) network scores were considerably higher than those reported by MacLeod et al. (2010) in their psychometric review of the ANT. Informal observations (e.g., some participants asking if they could keep doing the task when their session was over) suggesting that the AttentionTrip is considerably more engaging than the traditional ANT have been confirmed in a head-to-head comparison (Vallis & Klein, 2016). Conclusions: The AttentionTrip@ is available now for research purposes. A tablet version, which will have greater clinical utility, is under development. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.