Synonyms
Vigilance tests
Description
Cancellation tests are designed to measure sustained and selective attention.
Historical Background
Numerous variations of cancellation tests have been developed to assess sustained, selective attention and spatial inattention following hemispheric lesions. The patient is typically required to scan through an array of stimuli and find (cancel) specific target stimuli (e.g., bells).
Psychometric Data
There is relatively little normative data for cancellation tests, and most comparative studies show that normal individuals make few, if any, errors (Weintraub 2000). Standardized versions of cancellation tests, such as the Ruff 2 & 7, show good test-retest reliability. In addition, on the Ruff 2 & 7, younger adults performed better than older adults, and performances improved with higher levels of education. There were no gender effects (Mitrushina et al. 2005).
Clinical Uses
Cancellation tests have been shown to be sensitive in detecting deficits in...
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References and Readings
Kaplan, R. F., Verfaellie, M., Meadows, M. E., Caplan, L. R., Pessin, M. S., & DeWitt, L. D. (1991). Changing attentional demands in left hemispatial neglect. Archives of Neurology, 48, 1263–1266.
Mitrushina, M., Boone, K. B., Razani, J., & D’Elia, L. F. (2005). Handbook of normative data for neuropsychological assessment (2nd ed., pp. 160–170). New York: Oxford.
Weintraub, S. (2000). Neuropsychological assessment of mental state. In M. Mesulam (Ed.), Principles of behavioral neurology (2nd ed., pp. 121–173). New York: Oxford.
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Kaplan, R.F. (2018). Cancellation Tests. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1274
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1274
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