Cognitive and psychomotor performance tests and experiment design in multiple chemical sensitivity.
- 1 March 1997
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Environmental Health Perspectives in Environmental Health Perspectives
- Vol. 105 (suppl 2), 495-503
- https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.97105s2495
Abstract
People suffering from multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) complain of a variety of symptoms that could impair cognitive and psychomotor function either directly or indirectly. This paper discusses the use of cognitive and psychomotor performance tests together with some experiment designs that could be considered for use to assess fitness of MCS sufferers for work or the efficacy of diagnostic, preventative, or therapeutic measures. The tests could also contribute to the body of objective information on MCS and help sway the opinion of those who are dubious of its authenticity. The credentials of cognitive and psychomotor performance tests are derived from their successful use in studying the effects of drugs, and the types of tests are illustrated by describing those used by the United Kingdom Defence Evaluation and Research Agency Chemical and Biological Defence Human Studies Group, which has been involved in the assessment of drugs and chemicals on work performance for many years. The tests include mathematical, verbal and spatial processing, tracking, reaction time, attention and vigilance, and memory tests. The discussion of experiment designs includes both repeated measures and parallel groups designs together with their advantages and disadvantages and some suggested modifications to accommodate the particular problems posed by MCS.Keywords
This publication has 28 references indexed in Scilit:
- Performance tests.Environmental Health Perspectives, 1996
- Performance tests in human psychopharmacology (3): Construct validity and test interpretationHuman Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, 1991
- Performance correlates of self‐reported cognitive failure and of obsessionalityBritish Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1986
- Behavioural evaluation of workers exposed to mixtures of organic solvents.Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 1985
- Smoking, nicotine and human performancePharmacology & Therapeutics, 1983
- Range Effects in Experiments on PeopleThe American Journal of Psychology, 1975
- Tapping Regularity as a Measure of Perceptual Motor LoadErgonomics, 1966
- High-Speed Scanning in Human MemoryScience, 1966
- Unwanted asymmetrical transfer effects with balanced experimental designs.Psychological Bulletin, 1966
- Stimulus correlates of visual pattern recognition: a probability approach.Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1956