Looking at attention measures

[Greg Tucker-Kellogg]

I've been browsing among measures of attention or focus.  As a new reader of this area, it seems to me there is a divide between diagnostic tools for assessing attention deficits (whether as part of an ADHD diagnosis or, say, deficits resulting from a traumatic injury), and proposals for assessing "am I focused".  I could easily be mistaken in my perception of this divide, but there it is.  Tools like the Sustained Attention Response Task, or the Continuous Performance Task, measure deficits in attention both by lower average performance and higher variance in performance.  The variance makes sense for ADHD, since people with ADHD can alternate between hyperfocus and easy distraction, with the major challenge being able to control which state one is in. 

Would love to see some apps in this area.  Would also love to see some consumer eye-tracking tools.  I wonder if the front camera of an iPad could track eyeballs while a user is running an SART app at the same time?

I wish I could find more about attention training, which is even more of a desert than measurement of focus.  What is the evidence that people with ADHD can, through any form of training, improve their control of attention?

[Paul Oppenheim]

Worth noting:

http://www.neurosky.com/

+ p

On 2011-07-07 21:03, Greg Tucker-Kellogg wrote:
> I've been browsing among measures of attention or focus. As a new
> reader of this area, it seems to me there is a divide between
> diagnostic tools for assessing attention deficits (whether as part of
> an ADHD diagnosis or, say, deficits resulting from a traumatic
> injury), and proposals for assessing "am I focused". I could easily
> be mistaken in my perception of this divide, but there it is. Tools
> like the Sustained Attention Response Task, or the Continuous
> Performance Task, measure deficits in attention both by lower average
> performance and higher variance in performance. The variance makes
> sense for ADHD, since people with ADHD can alternate between
> hyperfocus and easy distraction, with the major challenge being able
> to control which state one is in.
>
> Would love to see some apps in this area. Would also love to see some
> consumer eye-tracking tools. I wonder if the front camera of an iPad
> could track eyeballs while a user is running an SART app at the same time?
>

> I wish I could find more about attention _training_, which is even

[Greg Tucker-Kellogg]

Yeah, I left those out just because they've been mentioned before.  I'd want to use the Neurosky device for self-tracking "consciousness bifurcation".  The one they have with headphones could be used to induce a binaural alpha pattern as a challenge to focus.  But I don't know if there's any data that shows such training works, even over the short term.  I'd love to compare a SART test and the resultant attention score detected from Neurosky's device.

[Greg Tucker-Kellogg]

There was also a mention at the QS Conference of eyeball tracking using a webcam.  Anyone know who is hacking this?  The only thing I can find is a commercial outfit YouEye for user testing, but no open-source efforts.

[Greg Tucker-Kellogg]

Paul, my apologies: my reply to you came across as rather asinine and dismissive.  You are right to point out Neurosky, and I should have included a reference to them in my post.  Thanks for following up.

[Paul Oppenheim]

No worries. Their product seems to almost exclusively target focus and
relaxation, in terms of meditation, athletic performance, helping kids
with ADHD, etc.

You can literally get "attention" as a single number:
http://youtu.be/TWd39wcs1SM

Unfortunately to buy a device you have to agree to weapons-grade awful
legal material. (ie, you don't own the hardware, you're just licensing
it - and need to return it if they ask! Also give up all legal consumer
rights.) Considering dismantling a mindflex as it would require no such
agreement.
http://frontiernerds.com/brain-hack

Or possibly going the OpenEEG route:
http://openeeg.sourceforge.net/

and getting less accurate data / wasting a lot of time but GOSH DARN IT,
I would get to feel really cool about myself. That's worth it, right?

<.< >.>

+ p

[Greg Tucker-Kellogg]

Wow, those are cool links.  Was anyone at the QS Convention following up on the hacks or the openEEG?