Are you interested in the possibility of assessing your own visual attention skills or those of a child under your care? If so, we invite you to try our innovative online Visual Attention Assessment application below. The Assessment takes the form of an interactive animation, which continually analyzes your interactions with displayed visual material and assesses key aspects of your visual attention skills. The findings are presented upon completion of the Assessment in the form of a written report at the end. In addition to summarizing the findings, the report will let you know whether there may be an opportunity to improve your attentional skills by repeating the application. You can learn more about it and what to expect by reading below. When you are ready, just click the "nose" in the picture below to get started!
More About the Visual Attention Assessment
The Visual Attention Assessment application measures and analyzes key characteristics of visual attention and determines whether there might be a benefit from repeating the Assessment. The Assessment is an outgrowth of more than thirty years of visual attention research by our Psychologist (more), and it can be effective in improving attention skills that can enhance learning. Although we have tailored the Assessment to young children in the 5-7 year age group, it can provide valuable information for individuals of any age. A printable report is automatically generated at the end that analyzes and explains the findings. The report also indicates whether or not there might be improvement of attention skills by repeating the Assessment.
What to expect. The Assessment takes the form of a sequence of visual displays, and the individual is provided a choice. The choice is made by selecting one of the two or more visual elements presented on the screen. Each time a correct choice is made, the screen flashes to provide positive feedback. Throughout the session the individual can also keep track of a posted score (indicating the number of correct choices) as a reward. The results are automatically analyzed to assess several key visual attention characteristics. A sophisticated multiple assessment technique is employed for the analysis, which provides an innovative and sensitive measure of those characteristics. A printable report is generated at the end that not only explains the findings, but also indicates whether repeating the Assessment would be beneficial. The report addresses three main areas:
Learning Efficiency - determines how quickly the individual attends to the relevant features of visual material.
Attention Durability - determines the extent to which attention to relevant visual cues is disrupted when complex educational material is presented.
Attention Focus - identifies the ease with which attention can be directed to relevant features in the visual environment, which is important for learning complex material.
Although the Assessment is fully self-contained, there are ways you can make it even more effective for young children in particular. We have found, for example, that it can be beneficial to offer a simple verbal praise (“Good!”) when the screen flashes after each correct response, and to say or do nothing when an error occurs. We have also found it can be effective to tell the child at the beginning that s/he will be earning points, and will have an opportunity at the end to trade them for a reward, like a snack, small toy, or recreational activity. This will make the score even more reinforcing, and encourage the child to continue to the end of the Assessment (typically about 10 minutes).