Abstract:

Introduction:
Attentional processes are cognitive functions directly related to academic performance, being mainly involved in several teaching-learning processes. Although there are several evaluation tools for the cognitive assessment of attention in the educational context, more research is needed on the development of new ecological and computer-based evaluation instruments for its assessment, mainly in the paradigm of serious game. In this regard, the employment of serious game for the neuropsychological evaluation has demonstrated significant advantages when compared with traditional evaluations, especially in clinical samples. However, one of the main limitations of the existing tools developed under the paradigm of serious games are related to the lack of analysis of their psychometric properties.

Objective:
The main aim of the present study was to characterize the serious game Attention Robots® and to analyze its validity through the association of the scores derived from its application with standardize and established evaluation tool for cognitive assessment, such as the computer-based cognitive evaluation Cognifit.

Method:
48 individuals with a diagnosis of ADHD (39 boys and 9 girls) aged from 6 to 18 years with a mean age of 12.13 (SD=3.02) were assessed. The Attention Robots® was administered to participants, and dimensions of Concentration and Working Speed were calculated based on the scores of hits and errors. This tool was developed to evaluate attention processes in children and adolescents. The procedure of this tool is based on the identification of a models of robots in several lines in which a lot of different robots appeared. The other tool that was applied to participants was the computer-based test Cognifit, concretely, the Cognitive General Assessment, which evaluated several cognitive domains, such as Perception, Attention, and Memory, among others. Pearson correlations were employed to identify the possible associations between the scores derived from Attention Robots® and Cognifit domains.

Results:
Positive and significant correlations were found between Concentration derived from the Attention Robots® and the Cognifit dimensions of Perception (r=0.668, p<0.001), Attention (r=0.449, p=0.002), and Memory (r=0.589, p<0.001). Also, Working Speed from the Attention Robots® demonstrated positive and significant correlations with Perception (r=0.623, p<0.001), Attention (r=0.417, p=0.004), and Memory (r=0.496, p<0.001) from Cognifit.

Conclusions:
The results obtained in the present study point out that the new serious game Attention Robots® could be considered as a feasible neuropsychological computer-based tool for the assessment of attention processes in children and adolescents. Moreover, could be a more efficient, reducing costs and being less time consuming compared to traditional paper and pencil test for the attention evaluation in academic and educational settings. Future studies with longitudinal designs and wider samples of participants could add useful and reliable information regarding the validity of this new tool for attention evaluation in this population.

Keywords:

Attention Robots, computer-based tool, serious game, neuropsychological assessment, attention, children, adolescents.