A-244 Examining the Effects of Computer Operating Configuration on Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics V 4.0 (ANAM4) Reaction Time: A Repeated Measures Approach with Clinical and Research Implications
Abstract Objective Computerized cognitive tests are vulnerable to measurement error due to hardware and software configurations of the administration computer. Though automatic score corrections are often provided to account for this, they may mask subtle individual variations in test performance. We investigated the group and individual impact of correcting for measurement error while accounting for possible order effects using data from a larger study of computer platform effects on reaction time measurement. Methods ANAM4 TBI Military’s Simple Reaction Time (SRT) subtest was administered repeatedly on three different computer platforms. We compare two of those platforms: Platform 1, a Dell D630 configured for ANAM4 TBI Military administration; Platform 3, a Dell E6540 with default settings. A mechanical arm with a preset RT was first used to capture measurement error on each platform. SRT was then administered to healthy US Army soldiers in a randomly selected administration order, such that platform 1 was first and platform 3 was third for n = 58 and platform 3 was first and platform 1 second for n = 53. Results Platform 3 was on average 43.06 ms slower than Platform 1. Group analyses suggested applying a 43.06 ms correction to Platform 3 scores resulted in scores similar to Platform 1. However, it appears there were subtle practice and fatigue effects for some individuals that were possibly masked by the score correction. Conclusion Correcting for error due to computer configurations is important in RT measurement, though there may be subtle individual statistical and clinical implications that are lost at a group analysis level.