Neuro-Cognitive Psychology and Center for Cognitive Interaction Technology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8465-9643.
J Vis. 2023 Aug 1;23(8):15. doi: 10.1167/jov.23.8.15.
The Trail Making Test (TMT) is a frequently applied neuropsychological test that evaluates participants' executive functions based on their time to connect a sequence of numbers (TMT-A) or alternating numbers and letters (TMT-B). Test performance is associated with various cognitive functions ranging from visuomotor speed to working memory capabilities. However, although the test can screen for impaired executive functioning in a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders, it provides only little information about which specific cognitive impairments underlie performance detriments. To resolve this lack of specificity, recent cognitive research combined the TMT with eye tracking so that eye movements could help uncover reasons for performance impairments. However, using eye-tracking-based test scores to examine differences between persons, and ultimately apply the scores for diagnostics, presupposes that the reliability of the scores is established. Therefore, we investigated the test-retest reliabilities of scores in an eye-tracking version of the TMT recently introduced by Recker et al. (2022). We examined two healthy samples performing an initial test and then a retest 3 days (n = 31) or 10 to 30 days (n = 34) later. Results reveal that, although reliabilities of classic completion times were overall good, comparable with earlier versions, reliabilities of eye-tracking-based scores ranged from excellent (e.g., durations of fixations) to poor (e.g., number of fixations guiding manual responses). These findings indicate that some eye-tracking measures offer a strong basis for assessing interindividual differences beyond classic behavioral measures when examining processes related to information accumulation processes but are less suitable to diagnose differences in eye-hand coordination.
连线测验（TMT）是一种常用于评估参与者执行功能的神经心理学测试，其依据是参与者连接数字序列（TMT-A）或交替的数字和字母（TMT-B）的时间。测试表现与各种认知功能相关，从视觉运动速度到工作记忆能力不等。然而，尽管该测试可以筛选出各种神经精神障碍中受损的执行功能，但它提供的关于哪些特定认知缺陷导致表现下降的信息很少。为了解决这种缺乏特异性的问题，最近的认知研究将 TMT 与眼动追踪相结合，以便眼动可以帮助揭示表现受损的原因。然而，使用基于眼动追踪的测试分数来比较个体之间的差异，并最终将分数应用于诊断，前提是分数的可靠性已经建立。因此，我们调查了 Recker 等人最近引入的 TMT 眼动追踪版本的测试-重测信度（2022）。我们检查了两个健康样本，先进行初始测试，然后在 3 天后（n=31）或 10 至 30 天后（n=34）进行重测。结果表明，尽管经典完成时间的可靠性总体上很好，与早期版本相当，但基于眼动追踪的分数的可靠性从优秀（例如，注视持续时间）到较差（例如，指导手动反应的注视次数）不等。这些发现表明，在检查与信息积累过程相关的过程时，一些眼动追踪指标除了经典行为指标之外，为评估个体间差异提供了一个强有力的基础，但不太适合诊断眼手协调方面的差异。
