Trail Making Test
System Requirements
Minimum: 800×600
Recommended: 1280×800
Description
A test of visual search, attention, mental flexibility, and motor function where participants connect numbered or lettered circles in sequence as quickly as possible.
About This Test
The Trail-making test is used for detecting brain injury and assessing eye-hand coordination and procedural skill. The most common version is by Reitan (Halstead-Reitan Battery), but it dates back to tests like the Taylor Number Series and Partington Pathways test from WWII Army testing batteries. The PEBL version can use either Reitan's original configurations or automatically-generated sets of new problems (default and recommended). Auto-generated problems allow more runs for better reliability and run each problem in both forms (A and B) with reflected points to obscure similarity, providing better comparison between forms.
Test Details
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Scientific Background
Original Task References:
These references describe the original task that this PEBL implementation is based on.
- Atkinson, T. M., & Ryan, J. P. (2008). The use of variants of the Trail Making Test in serial assessment: A construct validity study. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 26(1), 42-53. doi:10.1177/0734282907301592
- Buck, K. K., Atkinson, T. M., & Ryan, J. P. (2008). Evidence of practice effects in variants of the Trail Making Test during serial assessment. Journal of Clinical & Experimental Neuropsychology, 30(3), 312-318.
PEBL-Specific References:
These studies used the PEBL version of this task.
- Piper, B. J., Li, V., Eiwaz, M. A., Kobel, Y. V., Benice, T. S., Chu, A. M., Olsen, R. H. J., et al. (2011). Executive function on the Psychology Experiment Building Language tests. Behavior Research Methods. doi:10.3758/s13428-011-0096-6
Data Output
Creates two data files per test: (1) ptrails-<subnum>.txt with click-by-click log containing columns: subject_code, trial (problem number), clicks (total clicks so far), hits (successful clicks), clicktime (ms since program start), xclickposition, yclickpos, correct (1=correct click), id (target ID), time_since_last_click (ms), time_since_last_successful_click (ms); (2) ptrails-summary-<subnum>.txt with one line per problem containing columns: subject_code, problem_type (1=Form A numbers only, 2=Form B alternating numbers/letters), total_distance (path length), study_time (time to first click in ms), total_solution_time (ms), median_time_per_click (ms), number_of_hits (should be 26 for standard test), number_of_clicks (total clicks needed), efficiency_score (ratio of hits to clicks; equals 1.0 if perfect clicking).
About This Test
A test of visual search, attention, mental flexibility, and motor function where participants connect numbered or lettered circles in sequence as quickly as possible.
Category: Executive Function
Estimated Duration: 10 minutes
Available Translations: 1 language
Documentation Sources:
Test description file, Test implementation, Parameter schema
Documentation Status: Complete