Initial Evaluation of a New Auditory Attention Task for Assessing Alerting, Orienting, and Executive Control Attention.

Purpose: Attention is a key cognitive function crucial for selecting and processing information. It is often divided into three components: alerting, orienting, and executive control. While there are tasks designed to simultaneously assess the attentional subsystems in the visual modality, creating...

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Published in:Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research Vol. 68; no. 8; pp. 4049 - 4061
Main Authors: LaCroix, Arianna N., Sebranek, Emily
Format: Article
Published: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Aug2025
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Aug2025
      vid: 68
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      pub: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
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        10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00513
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        atl: Initial Evaluation of a New Auditory Attention Task for Assessing Alerting, Orienting, and Executive Control Attention.
      aug:
        au:
          LaCroix, Arianna N.
          Sebranek, Emily
        affil: Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
      su:
        Task performance
        Executive function
        Attention
        Mental orientation
        Research funding
        Prompts (Psychology)
        Aphasia
        Descriptive statistics
        Audiometry
        Odds ratio
        Intraclass correlation
        Research methodology
        Auditory perception
        Reaction time
        Data analysis software
        Confidence intervals
      sug:
        subj:
          Task performance
          Executive function
          Attention
          Mental orientation
          Research funding
          Prompts (Psychology)
          Aphasia
          Descriptive statistics
          Audiometry
          Odds ratio
          Intraclass correlation
          Research methodology
          Auditory perception
          Reaction time
          Data analysis software
          Confidence intervals
      ab: Purpose: Attention is a key cognitive function crucial for selecting and processing information. It is often divided into three components: alerting, orienting, and executive control. While there are tasks designed to simultaneously assess the attentional subsystems in the visual modality, creating an effective auditory task has been challenging, especially for clinical populations. This study aimed to explore whether a new Auditory Attention Task (AAT) measures all three attentional subsystems in neurotypical controls. Method: Forty-eight young adults completed the AAT, where they judged the duration of the first of two tones while ignoring the second tone's duration. Executive control was assessed by comparing performance on trials with conflict (incongruent) and without conflict (congruent). The tones could also differ on frequency and performance differences between trials with same versus different frequencies measured orienting attention. A warning cue was presented before the first pure tone on half of the trials. Alerting attention was measured by comparing performance on trials with and without a warning cue. Results: The AAT measured alerting, orienting, and executive control attention as expected. Participants were faster on warned than nonwarned trials (alerting) and on same-versus different-frequency trials (orienting). Participants were also faster and more accurate on same-versus different-duration trials (executive control). We also observed several interactions between the attentional subsystems. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that the AAT measured alerting, orienting, and executive control attention. However, additional work is needed to explore the AAT's utility in clinical populations, such as people with aphasia.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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