The distribution of "attention" and its testing

Abstract

The study is an examination of the results to be obtained with the "attention- and fatigue-meter" of Piorkowski. This is a box with ten slots, each provided with a button; at the appearance of a strip in any slot, the subject presses the corresponding button; the total number of strips appearing and the total number reacted to are counted electrically. This apparatus was changed by attaching a counter to each of the ten slots, and 25 subjects were used. Introspective reports showed that instead of the device being a test of attention, most of the subjects reacted during a condition of inattention; also, the distribution of efficiency over the ten keys was of all degrees of evenness. 15 subjects were tested with altered instructions, in which the reaction was made with the left hand on the fourth button when a strip appeared in any of the first five slots, and with the right hand on the seventh button when a strip appeared in any of the second five slots. This proved to be a test of attention; there are large individual differences both in general efficiency and in evenness, but the two are not correlated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)