TABLE 2.
Description and operationalization of neurocognitive measures
| Task | Measures | Description | Dependent variable |
|---|---|---|---|
| ANT | Information processing | The speed of responding to target appearance | Mean reaction time (ms) on neutral trials |
| Tau | Lapses of attention | The average of the exponential component of the fitted ex‐Gaussian curve, reflecting the influence of extremely slow responses (lapses of attention) on information processing | |
| Alerting attention | The speed of achieving an alert state | The difference in mean reaction time (ms) between central cue trials and no cue trials | |
| The accuracy of achieving an alert state | The difference in percentage of correct responses on central cue trials and no cue trials | ||
| Spatial attention | The speed of spatially orienting to information | The difference in mean reaction time (ms) between spatial cue trials and central cue trials | |
| The accuracy of spatially orienting to information | The difference in the percentage of correct responses on spatial cue trials and central cue trials | ||
| Interference control | The speed of suppressing irrelevant information | The difference in mean reaction time (ms) between incongruent trials and congruent trials | |
| The accuracy of suppressing irrelevant information | The difference in the percentage of correct responses on incongruent trials and congruent trials | ||
| DS | Verbal short‐term memory | The ability to hold verbal information in short‐term memory | The product of the number of correct responses and the highest span reached in the forward condition (Kessels, Van Zandvoort, Postma, Kappelle, & De Haan, 2000) |
| Verbal working memory | The ability to manipulate verbal information in working memory | The product of the number of correct responses and the highest span reached in the backward condition (Kessels et al., 2000) | |
| GT | Visuospatial short‐term memory | The ability to hold visuospatial information in short‐term memory | The product of the number of correct responses and the highest span reached in the forward condition (Kessels et al., 2000) |
| Visuospatial working memory | The ability to manipulate visuospatial information in working memory | The product of the number of correct responses and the highest span reached in the backward condition (Kessels et al., 2000) | |
| SST | Motor inhibition efficiency | The latency of an inhibitory process | The mean reaction time (ms) calculated for correct responses on go trials subtracted by the average stop signal delay time (ms) |
Abbreviations: ANT, Attention Network Test; DS, Digit Span; GT, Grid Task; SST, Stop Signal task.