Ladislav Moták

Czech Version of the Trail Making Test: Normative Data and Clinical Utility

The Trail Making Test (TMT) comprises two psychomotor tasks that measure a wide range of visual-perceptual and executive functions. The purpose of this study was to provide Czech normative data and to examine the relationship between derived TMT indices and demographic variables. The TMT was administered to 421 healthy adults. Two clinical groups (n = 126) were evaluated to investigate the clinical utility of the TMT-derived scores: amnestic mild cognitive impairment (n = 90) and Alzheimers disease (n = 36). Statistical analyses showed that age and education, but not gender, were significantly associated with TMT completion times and derived scores. Of all the indices, only the TMT ratio score was insensitive to age. We present normative values for the Czech version of the TMT, providing a reference for measuring individual performance in native Czech speakers. Moreover, we found that accuracy on the TMT was improved with the attenuation of age.

Czech version of Rey Auditory Verbal Learning test: Normative data

ABSTRACT The present study provides normative data stratified by age for the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning test Czech version (RAVLT) derived from a sample of 306 cognitively normal subjects (20–85 years). Participants met strict inclusion criteria (absence of any active or past neurological or psychiatric disorder) and performed within normal limits on other neuropsychological measures. Our analyses revealed significant relationships between most RAVLT indices and age and education. Normative data are provided not only for basic RAVLT scores, but for the first time also for a variety of derived (gained/lost access, primacy/recency effect) and error scores. The study confirmed a logarithmic character of the learning slope and is consistent with other studies. It enables the clinician to evaluate more precisely subject’s RAVLT memory performance on a vast number of indices and can be viewed as a concrete example of Quantified Process Approach to neuropsychological assessment.

Lorazepam impairs highway driving performance more than heavy alcohol consumption

While research indicates that benzodiazepine (BZD)-like drugs impair driving performance, it remains unclear (i) how far BZDs affect lane-keeping performance, compared with alcohol and (ii) to what extent this impact can realistically be measured in a simulated environment. To clarify these issues, 16 healthy male drivers who had never previously taken BZDs underwent a randomized, crossover, double-blind, placebo-controlled driving paradigm (with the BZD lorazepam) in both real-world and simulated settings. Two lane-keeping variables, namely inappropriate line crossings (ILCs) and standard deviation of lateral position (SDLP), were recorded during the driving sessions. Analyses revealed that (i) a single lorazepam dose (2 mg given by mouth) caused higher SDLP increases than a blood alcohol concentration of above 0.05%, and that (ii) this BZD effect was amplified in the simulated driving setting, mainly for ILCs. As a consequence, we recommend that physicians be made more aware of BZD-related risks and that researchers make a clear distinction between the effects of BZD intake per se and the impact of simulated driving settings.

Motivation to seek help and help efficiency in students who failed in an initial task

In the present study, we investigated whether help-seeking behaviors differ in their respective links to motivational variables such as achievement goals, help-seeking perceptions and self-efficacy. Eighty-two students who had failed to solve an initial word-processing task were invited - but not forced - to choose help before engaging in a comprehension task. While 19 of them did not seek help of any kind, 63 students opted for help. Taken together, our results suggest that i) those who refused to seek help did not differ from those who agreed to seek help on either motivational variables (except for self-efficacy), but ii) those who succeed on the comprehension task after using help were those who showed higher self-efficacy. The implications of these results for future research on the help-seeking process in interactive learning environments are discussed. Research has focused on help-seeking (HS) intentions rather than HS behaviors.We studied real-life HS behaviors in computer-based learning settings.We compared the motivational profiles of those who accepted versus declined help.Contrary to studies of HS intentions, the profiles differed solely on self-efficacy.Self-efficacy also mattered regarding HS efficiency.

Enhancing Older Drivers' Safety: On Effects Induced by Stereotype Threat to Older Adults' Driving Performance, Working Memory and Self-Regulation

We tested whether informing women about stereotype threat is a useful intervention to improve their performance in a threatening testing situation. Men and women completed difficult math problems described either as a problem-solving task or as a math test. In a third (teaching-intervention) condition, the test was also described as a math test, but participants were additionally informed that stereotype threat could interfere with womens math performance. Results showed that women performed worse than men when the problems were described as a math test (and stereotype threat was not discussed), but did not differ from men in the problem-solving condition or in the condition in which they learned about stereotype threat. For women, attributing anxiety to gender stereotypes was associated with lower performance in the math-test condition but improved performance in the teaching-intervention condition. The results suggest that teaching about stereotype threat might offer a practical means of reducing its detrimental effects.