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Cancellation Tests

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology

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Synonyms

Vigilance tests

Description

Cancellation tests are designed to measure sustained and selective attention.

Historical Background

Numerous variations of cancellation tests have been developed to assess sustained, selective attention and spatial inattention following hemispheric lesions. The patient is typically required to scan through an array of stimuli and find (cancel) specific target stimuli (e.g., bells).

Psychometric Data

There is relatively little normative data for cancellation tests, and most comparative studies show that normal individuals make few, if any, errors (Weintraub 2000). Standardized versions of cancellation tests, such as the Ruff 2 & 7, show good test-retest reliability. In addition, on the Ruff 2 & 7, younger adults performed better than older adults, and performances improved with higher levels of education. There were no gender effects (Mitrushina et al. 2005).

Clinical Uses

Cancellation tests have been shown to be sensitive in detecting deficits in...

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References and Readings

  • Kaplan, R. F., Verfaellie, M., Meadows, M. E., Caplan, L. R., Pessin, M. S., & DeWitt, L. D. (1991). Changing attentional demands in left hemispatial neglect. Archives of Neurology, 48, 1263–1266.

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  • Mitrushina, M., Boone, K. B., Razani, J., & D’Elia, L. F. (2005). Handbook of normative data for neuropsychological assessment (2nd ed., pp. 160–170). New York: Oxford.

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  • Weintraub, S. (2000). Neuropsychological assessment of mental state. In M. Mesulam (Ed.), Principles of behavioral neurology (2nd ed., pp. 121–173). New York: Oxford.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry (MC-2103), UConn Health Center, 263 Farmington Ave, 06030-2103, Farmington, CT, USA

    Richard F. Kaplan

Authors
  1. Richard F. Kaplan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Richard F. Kaplan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Richmond, Virgin Islands, USA

    Jeffrey Kreutzer

  2. Kessler Foundation , West Orange, New Jersey, USA

    John DeLuca

  3. Suite 200 , Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, USA

    Bruce Caplan

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© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

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Kaplan, R.F. (2017). Cancellation Tests. In: Kreutzer, J., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_1274-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_1274-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-56782-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-56782-2

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