AULA—Advanced Virtual Reality Tool for the Assessment of Attention

Abstract

Objective: The present study describes the obtention of normative data for the AULA test, a virtual reality tool designed to evaluate attention problems, especially in children and adolescents. Method: The normative sample comprised 1,272 participants (48.2% female) with an age range from 6 to 16 years ( M = 10.25, SD = 2.83). The AULA test administered to them shows both visual and auditory stimuli, while randomized distractors of ecological nature appear progressively. Results: Variables provided by AULA were clustered in different categories for their posterior analysis. Differences by age and gender were analyzed, resulting in 14 groups, 7 per sex group. Differences between visual and auditory attention were also obtained. Conclusion: Obtained normative data are relevant for the use of AULA for evaluating attention in Spanish children and adolescents in a more ecological way. Further studies will be needed to determine sensitivity and specificity of AULA to measure attention in different clinical populations. (J. of Att. Dis. 2016; 20(6) 542-568)