Sustained Auditory Attention Ability Test (SAAAT)

Background

The Sustained Auditory Attention Ability Test (SAAAT) is an auditory Continuous Performance Test developed in 2007 by Mariza Ribeiro Feniman and colleagues at the University of São Paulo's Hospital for Rehabilitation of Craniofacial Anomalies to assess auditory attentiveness in children 6 to 11 years old. Feniman was particularly interested in the effects of prolonged periods of hearing loss suffered by children with congenital cleft lip and palate on auditory attention.

Task Procedure

Participants hear a series of words presented one at a time at a rate of one per second. Words are selected from a list of 20 distractors and the target word ("no"). Participants are instructed to press a response key as quickly as possible if and only if the target "no" is presented. Instructions and error feedback are presented both visually and auditorily.

The test starts with 2 blocks of 50 practice trials with 10 targets and 40 non-targets presented per block. If practice performace is below 85% correct on the practice blocks, the test is terminated. Otherwise, 6 blocks of 100 test trials are run, with the 20 targets and 80 non-targets presented on each block. The sequence of words can optionally be fixed or randomly generated on the fly. Participants are presented error feedback after incorrect responses on practice but not test trials.

What it Measures

The SAAAT is a measure of sustained auditory attention.

Psychological Domains

• Sustained Auditory Attention: Ability to maintain focus on a continuous repetitive task over a long time.
• Inhibitory Control: Ability to withold a response to non-target stimuli

Main Performance Metrics

• Comission Rate: Proportion of responses to non-targets (impulsivity, inhibitory control)
• Omission Error Rate: Proportion of targets missed (distractibility, attentional lapse)
• D Prime: Ability to discriminate targets from non-targets (attentional capacity)
• Decrease in Vigilance (Attention Reduction Span): Compares performance on the first and last blocks (decline in attention over time)

Psychiatric Conditions

Performance on the SAAAT tends to be impaired in patients with the following psychiatric conditions:

• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Schizophrenia
• Depression/Anxiety Disorders
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)