What measurement tool for “Attentional Fatigue”?

Introduction

Attentional fatigue is experienced as a decreased ability to concentrate, engage in purposeful activity, and maintain social relationships when there are competing demands on attention. According to William James there are two types of attention: involuntary attention, which is effortlessly drawn to nature, things that affect survival, and things that fascinate us; and voluntary attention, which requires effort to direct when there are competing stimuli. Voluntary attention is necessary for concentration, purposeful action, and monitoring one’s behavior in social interactions. Nowadays there is no measuring scale for attentional fatigue that describes its characteristics such as dimensional size, measuring range, principle of operation.

Methods

To measure attentional fatigue we created a scale based on the IPDDAI scale (Identificazione Precoce del Disturbo da Deficit di Attenzione e Iperattività). It is an observational questionnaire composed by 10 items (as a reference of the 17 items of the IPDDAI) whose assessment is based on a 4-point Likert scale (0 = not at all/never, 1 = a little/most of the time, 2 = quite a lot/most of the time, 3 = a lot/always). The first 3 items are aimed at the subject’s behavior, item 4 investigates inattention, the next 4 analyze the impulsivity dimension, and the last two are related to self-esteem and relational aspects that could create interference with attention. The physiotherapist proposed this scale to neurologic patients who did not specifically manifest disorders that impaired the ability to pay attention and concentrate.

Results

Through the administration of this scale, we saw a significant improvement in patients’ consciousness about their attentional fatigue.

Discussion and Conclusion

Although there is no validated scale to measure attentional fatigue, thanks to the scale described before we realized that attentional fatigue is an important dimension that must be monitored. The exercises proposed by the physiotherapist are always calibrated to the person’s attention span. In this exercises, the patient is encouraged to stay focused, in order to develop progressively different components of attentional skill, such as focus, sustained attention, selectivity, divisibility and alternation.

REFERENCES

James, W. The Principles of Psychology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1890/1983;

Marcotto, E., Paltenghi, B., & Cornoldi, C. (2002). La scala IPDDAI: contributo per la costruzione di uno strumento per l’identificazione precoce del disturbo da deficit di attenzione e/o iperattività. Difficoltà di apprendimento, 8 (2), 153-172