Reliability of the 5-min psychomotor vigilance task in a primary school classroom setting

This study evaluated the reliability of the 5-min psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) in a single-sex Australian primary school. Seventy-five male students (mean age 5 11.82 years, SD = 1.12) completed two 5-min PVTs using a Palm personal digital assistant (PDA) in (1) an isolated setting and (2) a classroom setting. Of this group of students, a subsample of 37 students completed a test-retest reliability trial within the classroom setting. Using a mixed-model analysis, there was no significant difference in the mean response time (RT) or number of lapses (RTs ≥ 500 msec) between the isolated and the classroom setting. There was, however, an order effect for the number of lapses in the isolated setting, with the number of lapses being greater if the isolated test was conducted second. Test-retest intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) in the classroom setting indicated moderate to high reliability (mean RT = .84, lapses = .59). Bland-Altman analysis showed no systematic difference between the two settings. Findings suggest that the 5-min PDA PVT is a reliable measure of sustained attention in the classroom setting in this sample of primary-aged schoolchildren. The results provide further evidence for the versatility of this measuring device for larger interventions outside the laboratory.