The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) assessed their cohort members (CMs) during the study’s age 13 sweep (TeenFocus 2) using a measure of Reaction Time (Simple Choice Digit Vigilance).
Details on this measure and the data collected from the CMs are outlined in the table below.
| Domain: | Reaction time | |
| Measures: | Alertness | |
| Concentration | ||
| Simple reaction time | ||
| Choice reaction time | ||
| Mental Comparison Speed | ||
| CHC: | Gt (Decision speed/reaction time) | |
| Administration method: | Trained interviewer; clinical setting; CAPI | |
| Procedure: | Reaction time was measured using three different tasks: | |
| i. Simple reaction time: Using the CAPI, the child was presented with the word "YES" in the middle of the screen, at irregular intervals. They were instructed to press the left arrow key as soon as they saw the word "YES" appear. | ||
| ii. Choice Reaction time: Same as above but with the addition of the word "NO". Participant is instructed to press the left arrow key when "YES" appears, and the right arrow key when "NO" appears. | ||
| iii. Digit Vigilance: A single number is presented on the right hand side of the screen, and a series of changing numbers appear in the centre. When the number in the centre matches the number on the right, the participant must press the left arrow key as quickly as possible. | ||
| Link to questionnaire: | http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/researchers/our-data/clinical-measures/ (opens in new tab) | |
| Scoring: | Speed (median) and errors are recorded | |
| Item-level variable(s): | None | |
| Total score/derived variable(s): | fg5600 - fg5681 | |
| Descriptives: | Simple reaction time (median) | Choice reaction time (median) |
| N = 5,477 | N = 5,454 | |
| Range = 204 - 1663 | Range = 259 - 907 | |
| Mean = 285.26 | Mean = 440.30 | |
| SD = 51.49 | SD = 63.02 | |
(click image to enlarge) | (click image to enlarge) |
|
| Age of participants: | Mean (months) = 166.02, SD = 2.49, Range = 150 - 182 | |
| Other sweep and/or cohort: | None | |
| Source: | Standard reaction time tasks designed for study | |
| Technical resources: | None | |
| Reference examples: | Booth, J. N., Tomporowski, P. D., Boyle, J. M., Ness, A. R., Joinson, C., Leary, S. D., & Reilly, J. J. (2013). Associations between executive attention and objectively measured physical activity in adolescence: findings from ALSPAC, a UK cohort. Mental Health and Physical Activity, 6(3), 212-219. | |
For the named items in the table above, links are provided to their corresponding content on CLOSER Discovery. Where a variable range is provided, full variable lists can be accessed through the ‘Variable Groups’ tab on the linked Discovery page.
Go to:
- Overview of all cognitive measures in ALSPAC
- Overview of childhood cognitive measures across all studies
This page is part of CLOSER’s ‘A guide to the cognitive measures in five British birth cohort studies’.