Sustained attention can be measured using a brief computerized attention task

The Continuous Visual Attention Test (CVAT) is a test that detects visuomotor reaction time (RT, alertness), variability of reaction time (VRT, sustained attention), omission errors (OE, focused attention), and commission errors (CE, response inhibition). The standard test takes 15 min, while the ultrafast version only 90 s. Besides overall task length, the two versions differ by target probability (20% and 80% in the 15-min vs. only 80% in the 90-s test) and stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) (1, 2, and 4 s in the 15-min vs. only 1 s in the 90-s test. We aimed to analyze the effect of target probability, SOA, and time length on the CVAT variables across the 15-min task and to verify correlations and agreements between the 15-min and the 90-s CVATs. 205 healthy participants performed the two CVATs on the same day. Considering the 15-min task, RT and CE were strongly affected by target probability. Conversely, VRT was not affected. When the 15-min task was compared to the 90-s task, we found no significant difference in the VRT variable. Additionally, a significant agreement between the two tasks was found for the VRT variable. We concluded that sustained attention can be measured with the 90-s CVAT.