TY - JOUR
T1 - Measuring within-day cognitive performance using the experience sampling method
T2 - A pilot study in a healthy population
AU - Verhagen, Simone J W
AU - Daniëls, Naomi E M
AU - Bartels, Sara Laureen
AU - Tans, Sulina
AU - Borkelmans, Karel W H
AU - de Vugt, Marjolein E
AU - Delespaul, Philippe A E G
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors received no specific funding for this work. S.L.B’ contribution is funded by the Marie Curie Innovative Training Network action (ITN) action, H2020-MSCA-ITN-2015, under grant agreement number 676265. URL: https://ec. europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors would like to thank all the participants taking part in this research. Furthermore, the authors wish to acknowledge the contributions from Prof Rudolf Ponds, Dr Rosalie van Knippenberg, and Dr Bert Lenaert during the initial stages of the project. Without the continuing support of Truda Driessen and Kevin van Schaijk during the testing phase, and the useful feedback of Dr. Claudia Simons, the project would not have been a success.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Verhagen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2019/12/12
Y1 - 2019/12/12
N2 - INTRODUCTION: People with depression, anxiety, or psychosis often complain of confusion, problems concentrating or difficulties cognitively appraising contextual cues. The same applies to people with neurodegenerative diseases or brain damage such as dementia or stroke. Assessments of those cognitive difficulties often occurs in cross-sectional and controlled clinical settings. Information on daily moment-to-moment cognitive fluctuations and its relation to affect and context is lacking. The development and evaluation of a digital cognition task is presented. It enables the fine-grained mapping of cognition and its relation to mood, intrapersonal factors and context.METHODS: The momentary Digit Symbol Substitution Task is a modified digital version of the original paper-and-pencil task, with a duration of 30 seconds and implemented in an experience sampling protocol (8 semi-random assessments a day on 6 consecutive days). It was tested in the healthy population (N = 40). Descriptive statistics and multilevel regression analyses were used to determine initial feasibility and assess cognitive patterns in everyday life. Cognition outcome measures were the number of trials within the 30-second sessions and the percentage of correct trials.RESULTS: Subjects reported the task to be easy, pleasant and do-able. On average, participants completed 11 trials with 97% accuracy per 30-second session. Cognitive variation was related to mood, with an interaction between positive and negative affect for accuracy (% correct) (p = .001) and an association between positive affect and speed (number of trials) (p = .01). Specifically, cheerful, irritated and anxious seem to covary with cognition. Distraction and location are relevant contextual factors. The number of trials showed a learning effect (p < .001) and was sensitive to age (p < .001).CONCLUSION: Implementing a digital cognition task within an experience-sampling paradigm shows promise. Fine-tuning in further research and in clinical samples is needed. Gaining insight into cognitive functioning could help patients navigate and adjust the demands of daily life.
AB - INTRODUCTION: People with depression, anxiety, or psychosis often complain of confusion, problems concentrating or difficulties cognitively appraising contextual cues. The same applies to people with neurodegenerative diseases or brain damage such as dementia or stroke. Assessments of those cognitive difficulties often occurs in cross-sectional and controlled clinical settings. Information on daily moment-to-moment cognitive fluctuations and its relation to affect and context is lacking. The development and evaluation of a digital cognition task is presented. It enables the fine-grained mapping of cognition and its relation to mood, intrapersonal factors and context.METHODS: The momentary Digit Symbol Substitution Task is a modified digital version of the original paper-and-pencil task, with a duration of 30 seconds and implemented in an experience sampling protocol (8 semi-random assessments a day on 6 consecutive days). It was tested in the healthy population (N = 40). Descriptive statistics and multilevel regression analyses were used to determine initial feasibility and assess cognitive patterns in everyday life. Cognition outcome measures were the number of trials within the 30-second sessions and the percentage of correct trials.RESULTS: Subjects reported the task to be easy, pleasant and do-able. On average, participants completed 11 trials with 97% accuracy per 30-second session. Cognitive variation was related to mood, with an interaction between positive and negative affect for accuracy (% correct) (p = .001) and an association between positive affect and speed (number of trials) (p = .01). Specifically, cheerful, irritated and anxious seem to covary with cognition. Distraction and location are relevant contextual factors. The number of trials showed a learning effect (p < .001) and was sensitive to age (p < .001).CONCLUSION: Implementing a digital cognition task within an experience-sampling paradigm shows promise. Fine-tuning in further research and in clinical samples is needed. Gaining insight into cognitive functioning could help patients navigate and adjust the demands of daily life.
KW - ECOLOGICAL MOMENTARY ASSESSMENT
KW - MENTAL FATIGUE
KW - NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS
KW - DIGIT SUBSTITUTION
KW - TASK
KW - IMPAIRMENTS
KW - DISORDERS
KW - BIPOLAR
KW - MOOD
KW - SCHIZOPHRENIA
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0226409
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0226409
M3 - Article
C2 - 31830099
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 14
SP - e0226409
JO - PLOS ONE
JF - PLOS ONE
IS - 12
M1 - 0226409
ER -