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Abayon, Mia Shannon B.

3 PSY01
LETTER CANCELLATION TEST VS. NUMBER CANCELLATION TEST
INTRODUCTION OF THE STUDY
In todays work environment, with its increase in technology and information
communication, it is necessary to have good skills in attention, visual search and mental speed.
One of the most pervasive and poorly understood behavioral disturbances encountered in
neuropsychiatric and educational contexts is the symptom of impaired attention (Mirsky,
Anthony, Duncan, Ahearn, & Kellam, 1991; Mirsky, Bryand, & Tatman, 1995). All humans
experience lapses in attention, and research on attention in both normal and disordered states has
exploded over the last three decades. Evidence is rapidly accumulating that suggests that the
attention system in humans consists of a multi-component network that requires the coordinated
action of several cerebral areas including the frontal lobes, basal ganglia, corpus callosum, and
cerebellum (Fan, McCandliss, Sommer, Raz, & Posner, 2002; Giedd, Blumenthal, Molloy, &
Castellanos, 2001). Cognitive processes carried out by the attentional network in humans
includes spatial orienting to stimuli, maintaining an aroused and alert mental state, disengaging
from and shifting between competing stimuli in a complex environment, and sustaining focus in
mental operations. rsky & Duncan, 2001).
One important method of assessing the ability to sustain and focus attention, is the
cancellation test. Clinical and experimental studies of attention have used cancellation tests for
well over 100 years, and the procedures have been noted to require sustained attention, rapid
visual scanning and motor activation, and rapid inhibition of responses Cancellation tests have
long been used in the neurological assessment of visuospatial function and selective attention,

mainly in stroke patients, where they are utilized to assess spatial inattention or neglect.
Cognitive domains involved in the cancellation task include sustained and selective attention,
psychomotor speed, visual searching and motor coordination.
Cancellation tests can be characterized by type of stimulus (letters, geometric figures,
numbers), by size of matrix (number of rows and columns) and configuration of matrix (random
or organized arrays). The number of correct or incorrect target stimuli identified, together with
the time to complete the task is used to evaluate the subject's performance.

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