Carmen Dussán Lubert

ESTANDARIZACIÓN DE PRUEBAS NEUROPSICOLÓGICAS PARA LA EVALUACIÓN DE LA ATENCIÓN EN ESTUDIANTES UNIVERSITARIOS (Standardization of a Protocol of Neuropsychological Tests for the Assessment of Attention in College Students)

Objetivo: Describir los resultados de un estudio de estandarizacion de tareas neuropsicologicas para evaluar la atencion en estudiantes universitarios. Metodologia: 208 estudiantes universitarios de la ciudad de Manizales (Colombia), sin patologia neurologica o psiquiatrica asociada, evaluados con el Test del Trazo parte A y parte B (TMT A, B), y el Test de adicion serial auditiva pautada (PASAT). Plan de analisis: La validez de apariencia fue evaluada mediante juicio de expertos; la de contenido utilizando analisis factorial; la de criterio concurrente a traves del coeficiente de correlacion de Pearson; la consistencia interna con el coeficiente alfa de Cronbach; la consistencia relacionada con el tiempo de aplicacion y entre evaluadores, mediante la proporcion de aciertos, la prueba t para comparacion de medias y el coeficiente de correlacion. La normalidad de los datos se determino empleando la prueba de Shapiro Wilk. La comparacion entre puntuaciones medias de hombres y mujeres se realizo utilizando la U de Mann - Whitney o t de Student. Se obtuvieron baremos para las pruebas incluidas en la investigacion. Resultados: Se encontro adecuada validez de contenido para las tareas atencionales contempladas en el estudio, asi mismo, adecuada validez de criterio y confiabilidad para la prueba PASAT, y baja validez de criterio y niveles moderados de confiabilidad pretest - postest, para el caso de las tareas de TMT A, B, en la muestra de estudiantes universitarios considerada en el estudio. Palabras clave: Atencion, Adulto Joven, Evaluacion Neuropsicologica. Abstract Objective: This study aimed to describe the results of a standardization study of some classical neuropsychological tasks for attention assessment: Trail Making Test A, B, Paced auditory serial addition test (PASAT). Methodology: The sample consisted of 208 healthy college students from Manizales, with no associated neurological or psychiatric pathology. The instruments used were the Rey verbal auditory learning test, the Rey complex test, the serial auditory test Pattern and Benton visual retention test. Analysis Plan: the validity of appearance was assessed through expert judgment, the content was evaluated by factorial analysis, the validity of concurrent criterion through the Pearson´s correlation coefficient, and the internal consistency by Cronbachs alpha coefficient. Consistency related to the time of the instrument administration by different evaluators, was analyzed according to the number of hits, the difference of means, and the correlation coefficient. The data consistency was analyzed by means of the Shapiro Wilk test. The male and female scores were collated by the U of Mann - Whitney or Students t, and finally the scores obtained by each one of the tests were included in the research. Results: It was evidenced adequate content validity for the attentional tasks included in the study, as well as suitable criterion validity and reliability for the PASAT test, and low criterion validity and moderate levels of pretest, posttest reliability in the case of TMT (A) and TMT (B) tasks provided by the university student sample considered in the study. Key words: Attention, Young Adults, Neuropsychological Assessment.