Use of a digital computer to produce a psychological test— Rabbitt's test of selective attention

Summary A PDP-8/S digital computer has been used to produce a psychological test—Rabbitt's test of selective attention —which consists of packs of cards with varying numbers of letters, some of which are classified as relevant and some as irrelevant. Central processing ability is assessed by timing the sorting of the cards on the basis of the relevant information, the irrelevant information being ignored. The program both chooses and positions the symbols randomly and the prints the card face on its Teletype output. A flow diagram of the program and details of the random number generator are described. The use of the computer for this purpose has reduced the time taken to produce one pack of cards by a factor of at least 10. Further developments of the technique are discussed.