The Tests
Learn more about individual CCAB tests by expanding each test section.
A Growing Normative Data Set
Normative longitudinal CCAB data collection is ongoing, with access to anonymized data from NBS and participating investigators to be made available with a CCAB license.
A Growing Normative Data Set
Normative longitudinal CCAB data collection is ongoing, with access to anonymized data from NBS and participating investigators to be made available with a CCAB license.
Verbal Tasks
CCAB verbal tasks are automatically scored using automated speech recognition, saving hours of time.
The BAVLT measures participants’ immediate verbal recall and long-term verbal recall and recognition. Participants listen to a list of words and are asked to recall as many words as they can remember.
Duration: 7.8 minutes. Participants are instructed to recall words from a 12-word list A presented three times during encoding, followed by a 12-word list B, and immediate recall of List A. After a 30 minute delay, they recall List A words followed by a 2-alternative forced choice recognition test. All stimuli and digitized responses are archived and timestamped transcripts are produced with CASR.
Test-retest reliability: r = 0.84 for encoding and immediate recall, r = 0.74 for delayed recall, and r = 0.85 for total recall.
The C-FNAME measures associative and episodic memory. Subjects see faces associated with names and jobs. Later, they must recall the names and jobs when seeing just the face.
Duration: 8.3 minutes. Participants are instructed to recall the first names, last names, and occupations associated with 6 different faces which are presented twice during encoding with immediate recall following each presentation. After a 30-minute delay, they are again tested with each face. All stimuli and digitized responses are archived and timestamped transcripts are produced with CASR.
Test-retest reliability: r = 0.73 for encoding and immediate recall, r = 0.82 for delayed recall.
Digit span measures working memory. Lists of digits are presented to subjects, who must recall them either in order, or in reverse order. List lengths are adjusted with an adaptive staircase, and verbal responses are scored with automatic speech recognition.
Digit span forward.
Duration: 4.9 minutes. Participants must recall digit lists that increase after correct responses and decrease after failures. Lists terminate after 3 failures or a maximum of 14 trials. A sub-digit mean span metric is used to calculate span.
Test-retest reliability: r = 0.70 mean span; r = 0.78 time per digit.
Digit span reverse.
Duration: 4.7 minutes. Participants must recall digit lists in reverse order that increase after correct responses and decrease after failures. Lists terminate after 3 failures or a maximum of 14 trials. A sub-digit mean span metric is used to calculate span.
Test-retest reliability: r = 0.70 mean span; r = 0.60 time per digit.
Participants hear a story and are asked to immediately recall as many details of that story as they can.
Duration: 4.6 minutes. Participants listen to a story and recall it immediately afterward. After a 30-minute delay, delayed recall is assessed followed by a 2-alternative forced choice recognition test. Digitized speech is archived and timestamped transcripts are produced with CASR.
Test-retest reliability: r = 0.76 for keywords during encoding, r = 0.76 for keywords during delayed recall.
Participants are presented a picture of a domestic scene and asked to describe in as much detail as possible what is happening in the scene. After a 20 minute delay, they are asked to recall the picture again. Digitized speech is archived and analyzed with CASR.
Presented a grid of images, participants name the images as quickly as possible.
Duration: 2.1 minutes. Participants name 24 pictures on a screen then the pictures are shuffled and the naming task repeated. Digitized speech is archived and timestamped transcripts produced with CASR.
Test-retest reliability: r = 0.77 for time per word, r = 0.80 for estimated errors.
Presented one word at a time, subjects must respond with either an antonym or a synonym of that word, depending on the ink color of the word.
Duration: 4.4 minutes. Participants produce synonyms and antonyms for individual words flashed on the display depending on font color (blue vs. red). Then the words are presented again with the font colors reversed.
Test-retest reliability: r = 0.74 for accuracy, r = 0.83 for response RTs.
A prose story is presented on screen, and participants read it aloud, while their speech is recorded.
Participants report the font color of 36 words on the screen in three conditions: neutral, compatible, and incompatible, while in a fourth condition they must read 36 black-and-white color words aloud. Digitized speech is archived and CASR is used to analyze time per responses(787 ms in compatible conditions and 1223 ms in incompatible conditions, with compatibility effects increasing with age (r = 0.31).
A verbal implementation of the classic digit-symbol test. Given a set of 12 symbols, each associated with a number, subjects are then shown a set of 36 symbols, and must report the number associated with each.
Duration: 4.0 minutes. Participants respond as fast as possible to three successive displays of 12 symbols each by saying aloud 12 numbers that correspond to each of 12 symbols shown based on a table at the top of each display. Individual response times and correctness are archived to permit the analysis of total completion time and other measures.
Test-retest reliability: r = 0.56 for total completion time, r = 0.72 for time per utterance.
Given a category, subjects name as many items from that category as they can within a time limit.
Duration: Participants produce as many words as possible in 1-minute in the animal fluency test, followed by a 1-minute vegetable fluency test. Digitized speech is archived and timestamped transcripts are produced with CASR.
Test-retest reliability: r = 0.74 for unique animal names, r = 0.76 for unique vegetables.
A brief, 3-minute adaptive staircase vocabulary test. The vocabulary subtest contains 24 words selected adaptively from 60 difficulty levels. Participants select the best synonym for each word while the difficulty level adapts using a 2:1 staircase with varying step sizes.
Spatial Tasks
Touchscreens provide considerable
freedom in test design possibilities.
Participants create as many unique ‘designs’ as possible in a time limit, by drawing lines to connect circles displayed on screen.
Duration: 3.4 minutes. Participants must produce as many unique 4-line patterns by connecting dots using the touchscreen. After each pattern is produced it is erased.
Test-retest reliability: r = 0.70 unique pattern count, r = 0.78 pattern completion time.
A geometric figure is shown on one side of the screen, and subjects use the touchscreen to copy the drawing on the other side of the screen. Later, they are also asked to draw the figure from memory.
Duration: 5.4 minutes. Participants search for a figure hidden in complex design arrays using touch responses and completing as many trials as possible in 4.0 minutes. All stimuli and responses are archived.
Test-retest reliability: r = 0.84 for reaction time, r = 0.81 for number correct.
Duration: 5.4 minutes. Participants search for identical pictures in arrays using touch responses and completing as many trials as possible in 4 minutes. All stimuli and responses are archived.
Test-retest reliability: r = 0.84 for reaction time, r = 0.81 for number correct.
A touchscreen implementation of the Corsi block tapping test. Participants are shown a sequence of squares on screen, and must then touch the squares in the same order. The number of squares in the sequence changes in an adaptive staircase.
Duration: 4.8 minutes. Participants reproduce the order of block illuminations using the touch screen (analogous to Corsi block). Lists terminate after 3 failures or a maximum of 14 trials. A sub-digit mean span metric is used to calculate span.
Test-retest reliability: r = 0.43 mean span; r = 0.73 mean inter-touch interval. This test is being reviewed.
A touchscreen implementation of the classic trail making test. Subjects use their finger to connect a set of 25 circles in the appropriate order.
Trail Making A.
Duration: 2.8 minutes. Participants connect successive numbered circles using the touch screen. Finger position is digitized at 30 Hz and archived to permit the analysis of drawing speed and directness, errors, and completion time.
Test-retest reliability: r = 0.72 for completion time, r = 0.83 for drawing velocity.
Trail Making B.
Duration: 3.1 minutes. Participants connect circles with alternate numbers and letters using the touch screen. Finger position is digitized at 30 Hz and archived to permit the automated analysis of drawing speed and directness, errors, and completion time.
Test-retest reliability: r = 0.78 for completion time, r = 0.80 for drawing velocity.
Processing Speed Tasks
Processing speed is an established indicator of brain efficiency and has been studied extensively in Alzheimer's and dementia.
Participants respond as fast as possible to 64 bullseye stimuli appearing in the left or right hemifield as stimulus onset asynchronies vary. All responses are archived and simple reaction time and accuracy are measured for each stimulus.
Participants are presented one colored letter at a time, and must press one of two buttons based on the letter and its color.
Duration: 5.2 minutes. Participants respond as fast as possible to 60 trials in a visual feature conjunction task, responding with the left mouse button to 24 targets and with the right mouse button with 36 non-targets. Stimuli are presented to the left or right hemifield. Stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) adapt following a 2:1 staircase. All responses are archived and analyzed to obtain reaction times and accuracies to different types of stimuli and minimum SOA.
Participants are presented letters rotated by varying amounts, and must determine if the rotated letter is in its standard orientation, or has been mirror-reversed.
Duration: 5.0 minutes. Participants indicate whether the letter “R” was presented or its mirror image. Fifty stimuli are presented at five different rotation angles with equiprobably standard and mirror imaged letters. All stimuli and responses are archived.
Test-retest reliability: r = 0.81 for reaction time, r = 0.65 for number correct.
Using first one hand and then the other, participants click the mouse button as many times as they can in 20 seconds.
Duration: 3.9 minutes. Participants tap as fast as they can for 20s with the index fingers of the dominant and then the non-dominant hand on a computer gaming mouse. All responses are archived and inter-tap intervals and other measures are obtained.
Questionnaires
Questionnaires provide important demographic and behavioral information.
Duration: 14.3 minutes. The adaptive 110-120 item questionnaire contains selectable sub-questionnaires including the Geriatric Depression Scale (Sheikh & Yesavage, 1986), General anxiety disorder (GAD-7) scale (Spitzer et al., 2006), the Cognitive Failures Scale (Broadbent et al., 1982), and the functional status (FS-20) questionnaire (Jette et al., 1986). Additional questions gather information about general health, sleep and alertness, drug and alcohol use, specific health conditions (e.g., diabetes, obesity, heart disease), uncorrected hearing and vision loss, family structure, family history of dementia, covid-19 illness, socioeconomic status, subjective cognitive decline, mood and alertness, and willingness to participate in additional research projects. A subset of questions is administered prior to each longitudinal test session. Question completion time (QCT) is measured for each question.
An inventory to measure problems with attentiveness and memory in everyday life.
A short inventory to measure self-reported anxiety symptoms.
A short inventory to measure self-reported depression symptoms.
A short inventory measuring self-reported health and pain problems.
Our demographic questionnaires collect info on the following items, to name a few:
- Age
- Gender
- Socioeconomics
- General Health
- Psychological / Neurological Conditions
- Mood
- Drug Use
- COVID History
Sensory Threshold Tasks
Our sensory threshold tasks confirm that participants clearly perceive test stimuli.
Participants repeat words heard through the headphones at varying volume to ensure CCAB auditory stimuli are within auditory thresholds.
Duration: 1.8 minutes. The participant’s repeats aloud 12 words that are presented at intensities that are adapted using a staircase procedure to measure speech-recognition thresholds (the lowest intensity where words are correctly reported). The speech-recognition threshold is used to set the intensity of auditory stimuli in other tests.
Participants read words of varying text size on screen to ensure CCAB visual stimuli are within visual thresholds.
Duration: 1.8 minutes. The participant’s task is to read aloud 12 words that are visually presented at font sizes that are adjusted using a staircase procedure. Visual acuity thresholds are measured to assure the visibility of visual stimuli.
Participants read multiple screens of digits, words, and prose to collect a speech sample and assure the reliability of automated speech recognition.
Duration: 3.1 minutes. The participant reads aloud sequences of digits and words on successive display screens. ASR Q/A testing is used to evaluate transcription accuracy.
