Sit still and pay attention: Using the Wii Balance-Board to detect lapses in concentration in children during psychophysical testing

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Abstract

During psychophysical testing, a loss of concentration can cause observers to answer incorrectly, even when the stimulus is clearly perceptible. Such lapses limit the accuracy and speed of many psychophysical measurements. This study evaluates an automated technique for detecting lapses based on body movement (postural instability). Thirty-five children (8–11 years of age) and 34 adults performed a typical psychophysical task (orientation discrimination) while seated on a Wii Fit Balance Board: a gaming device that measures center of pressure (CoP). Incorrect responses on suprathreshold catch trials provided the “reference standard” measure of when lapses in concentration occurred. Children exhibited significantly greater variability in CoP on lapse trials, indicating that postural instability provides a feasible, real-time index of concentration. Limitations and potential applications of this method are discussed.

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Most cited references 56

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A neuromarker of sustained attention from whole-brain functional connectivity

Monica Rosenberg, Emily Finn, Dustin Scheinost … (2015)

Although attention plays a ubiquitous role in perception and cognition, researchers lack a simple way to measure a person’s overall attentional abilities. Because behavioral measures are diverse and difficult to standardize, we pursued a neuromarker of an important aspect of attention, sustained attention, using functional magnetic resonance imaging. To this end, we identified functional brain networks whose strength during a sustained attention task predicted individual differences in performance. Models based on these networks generalized to previously unseen individuals, even predicting performance from resting-state connectivity alone. Furthermore, these same models predicted a clinical measure of attention—symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder—from resting-state connectivity in an independent sample of children and adolescents. These results demonstrate that whole-brain functional network strength provides a broadly applicable neuromarker of sustained attention.

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Adaptive procedures in psychophysical research.

R Leek (2001)

As research on sensation and perception has grown more sophisticated during the last century, new adaptive methodologies have been developed to increase efficiency and reliability of measurement. An experimental procedure is said to be adaptive if the physical characteristics of the stimuli on each trial are determined by the stimuli and responses that occurred in the previous trial or sequence of trials. In this paper, the general development of adaptive procedures is described, and three commonly used methods are reviewed. Typically, a threshold value is measured using these methods, and, in some cases, other characteristics of the psychometric function underlying perceptual performance, such as slope, may be developed. Results of simulations and experiments with human subjects are reviewed to evaluate the utility of these adaptive procedures and the special circumstances under which one might be superior to another.

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Adaptive psychophysical procedures.

Bernhard Treutwein (1995)

Improvements in measuring thresholds, or points on a psychometric function, have advanced the field of psychophysics in the last 30 years. The arrival of laboratory computers allowed the introduction of adaptive procedures, where the presentation of the next stimulus depends on previous responses of the subject. Unfortunately, these procedures present themselves in a bewildering variety, though some of them differ only slightly. Even someone familiar with several methods cannot easily name the differences, or decide which method would be best suited for a particular application. This review tries to illuminate the historical background of adaptive procedures, explain their differences and similarities, and provide criteria for choosing among the various techniques.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Pete R. Jones: p.r.jones@ucl.ac.uk

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Behav Res Methods

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Behav Res Methods

Title: Behavior Research Methods

Publisher: Springer US (New York )

ISSN (Print): 1554-351X

ISSN (Electronic): 1554-3528

Publication date (Electronic): 16 May 2018

Publication date PMC-release: 16 May 2018

Publication date (Print): 2019

Volume: 51

Issue: 1

Pages: 28-39

Affiliations

[1 ]ISNI 0000000121901201, GRID grid.83440.3b, Institute of Ophthalmology, , University College London (UCL), ; 11-43 Bath Street, London, EC1V 9EL UK

[2 ]ISNI 0000 0000 9168 0080, GRID grid.436474.6, NIHR Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre, ; London, UK

[3 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 8497, GRID grid.28577.3f, City University of London, ; London, UK

Article

Publisher ID: 1045

DOI: 10.3758/s13428-018-1045-4

PMC ID: 6420608

PubMed ID: 29770907

SO-VID: a9620aa0-3239-429d-9fae-2599a243f296

License:

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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Funded by: NIHR

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry

Keywords: psychophysics,children,lapse rates,task engagement,concentration,attentiveness,test development,wii fit balance board,postural instability,center of pressure,catch trials,receiver operating characteristic

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry

Keywords: psychophysics, children, lapse rates, task engagement, concentration, attentiveness, test development, wii fit balance board, postural instability, center of pressure, catch trials, receiver operating characteristic

Sit still and pay attention: Using the Wii Balance-Board to detect lapses in concentration in children during psychophysical testing

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Most cited references 56

A neuromarker of sustained attention from whole-brain functional connectivity

Adaptive procedures in psychophysical research.

Adaptive psychophysical procedures.

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