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| psychology experiments | |
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METHOD Initially, four stimulus cards are presented to the participant: the first has one red triangle, the second has two green stars, the third has three yellow crosses, and the fourth has four blue circles. He or she is then given a stack of additional cards and asked to match each one to one of the four stimulus cards, thereby forming four separate piles of cards. The participant is not told how to match the cards; however, he or she is told whether a particular match is right or wrong. To determine whether each card is sorted correctly, a rule is chosen: either shape, '''number''', or '''color'''. A trial is correct if it is placed in the pile which matches the card on the dimension of the rule. In the diagram, the correct placement of the target card with two yellow circles depends upon the rule. If the rule were '''number''', it should be placed in the second pile; if the rule were '''color''', it should be placed in the third pile; and if the rule were shape, it should be placed in the fourth pile. If the participant successfully sorts a specific number of consecutive trials (e.g., five), the rule is changed. The task continues for 128 trials or until nine rule changes have been accomplished successfully (called ''achieved categories''). The original WCST used paper cards and was carried out with the experimenter on one side of the desk facing the participant on the other E. A. Berg. (1948). A simple objective technique for measuring flexibility in thinking J. Gen. Psychol. 39: 15-22.. Since the early 1990s, however, computerized versions of the task have been available, the most recent version being the windows-compatible version 4.0 Psychological Assessment Resources. Computerised Wisconsin Card Sort Task Version 4 (WCST). Psychological Assessment Resources; 2003.. The latter has the advantage of automatically scoring the test, which was quite complex in the manual version. The test takes approximately 12-20 minutes to carry out and generates the following results:
CLINICAL USE Clinically, the test is widely used by ". USE IN RESEARCH The WCST has been used in such as Motor Neurone Disease and Multiple Sclerosis has identified at least a subgroup of these patients for whom there is some subtle degree of cognitive dysfunction, in contrast to the traditional view that these were pure disorders of the Motor System . The test is also widely used in research into Schizophrenia e.g.Cannon TD, Glahn DC, Kim J, Van Erp TG, Karlsgodt K, Cohen MS, Nuechterlein KH, Bava S, Shirinyan D., Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Activity During Maintenance and Manipulation of Information in Working Memory in Patients With Schizophrenia, Arch Gen Psychiatry 2005;62:1071-1080.Rossi A, Daneluzzo E, Tomassini A, Struglia F, Cavallaro R, Smeraldi E, Stratta P., The effect of verbalization strategy on Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in schizophrenic patients receiving classical or atypical antipsychotics. BMC Psychiatry. 2006 Jan 26;6:3.. REFERENCE EXTERNAL LINKS
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