Color Trails Test: a Brazilian normative sample

Abstract

The present study aims to evaluate psychometric data on the population of Brazil using of the Color Trails Test (CTT). The instrument was applied to 1,942 subjects who came from the north (1.4%), northeast (10.4%), midwest (7.7%), southeast (65.9%), and south (13.9%) regions of Brazil. Ages varied from 18 to 86 years (M = 40.03 years; DP = 16.02), with 386 males (19.9%) and 1,556 females (80.1%). Regarding schooling, 57 (3%) of participants were illiterate, 1.240 (64%) had primary education and 645 (33%) had a high school and/or superior diploma. The length of schooling ranged from 0 to 14 (M = 7.81, SD = 3.51) years. Good accuracy ratings were obtained using Spearman's coefficient on the main measures of the CTT, including time of execution form 1 (0.76) and form 2 (0.82). Regional variations showed that the northeast region had the worst results on the instrument. Males had better performance on the proposed task, with significant differences between age groups and the worst results for ages greater than 60 years. For both sexes, an increase in score was noticed with increasing age, and better performance was found with increasing levels of education. The present results suggest that the CTT can identify attentional disturbances with significant variations in the time of execution.

Prospective Memory Performance in Non-Psychotic First-Degree Relatives of Patients with Schizophrenia: A Controlled Study

“…The anterior cingulate cortex is involved in selecting an appropriate response and allocate attentional resources, while the posterior dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is employed in accomplishing the current goal [64]. In the CTT-2, participants have to divide their attention while simultaneously tracking the alternating sequence of colors and numbers [65]. This process is related to the lower third of the dorsolateral prefrontal, premotor and left medial frontal cortex, and the intraparietal sulcus bilaterally [66].…”

Low macular pigment optical density is associated with lower cognitive performance in a large, population-based sample of older adults

“…Executive function was assessed using color trails tasks 1 and 2 (CTT1 and CTT2) (D'Elia et al, 1996) and the visual reasoning task from the CAMDEX--R (Roth et al, 1999). CTT1 is largely a test of visual scanning and sustained attention, whereas CTT2 is dependent on additional executive functions such as task switching (Rabelo et al, 2010). The performance variables of interest were the time taken to successfully complete CTT1 and the time taken to successfully complete CTT2, with shorter completion times indicative of better performance.…”

Fear of falling: A manifestation of executive dysfunction?

“…27 For the two-choice reaction time task (CRT), starting with the finger on a central button, participants were asked to press the buttons "yes" and "no" as quickly as possible in response to the stimuli yes and no, which appeared on the screen (approximately 100 repetitions). CTT1 is largely a test of visual scanning and attention, whereas CTT2 is dependent on additional executive functions such as task switching.…”

“…CTT1 is largely a test of visual scanning and attention, whereas CTT2 is dependent on additional executive functions such as task switching. 27 For the two-choice reaction time task (CRT), starting with the finger on a central button, participants were asked to press the buttons "yes" and "no" as quickly as possible in response to the stimuli yes and no, which appeared on the screen (approximately 100 repetitions).…”