Comprehensive Attention Test (CAT)

The CAT (Comprehensive Attention Test) is a standardized assessment that measures multiple sub-domains of attention in a multidimensional way, taking into account developmental characteristics and situational context across age groups. Beyond simply determining whether someone “focuses well or poorly,” it provides objective scores for selective attention, sustained attention, divided attention, working memory, and inhibitory control.

It is widely used to assess cognitive difficulties associated with ADHD, academic underperformance, impulse control problems, anxiety, and depression. The CAT can be administered across a broad age range — from children and adolescents to adults. It provides an attention profile with percentile ranks and standard scores based on age-group norms, and identifies specific strengths and weaknesses across sub-domains such as visual vs. auditory and selective vs. sustained attention. It also serves as a foundational data source for evaluating clinical difficulties such as ADHD, learning disabilities, impulse control disorders, and depressive/anxiety disorders, and for designing personalized interventions including cognitive training, neurofeedback, and psychotherapy.

Age Ranges and Subtests

The CAT uses different tasks suited to each age group. Game-format tasks are provided according to the developmental level of the examinee, with difficulty and stimulus type varying by age.

Early Childhood & Children (Ages 4 – Lower Elementary)

• Visual Selective Attention: Quickly and accurately locating target stimuli among multiple images
• Auditory Selective Attention: Distinguishing and responding to specific sounds
• Sustained Attention: Maintaining consistent attention when the same stimulus is repeated
• Working Memory & Inhibitory Control: Remembering previously presented rules and avoiding impulsive responses

Adolescents (Upper Elementary – High School)

• Visual/Auditory Sustained Attention: Maintaining attention over extended periods
• Divided Attention: Responding simultaneously to two types of stimuli (e.g., sound + image)
• Shifting Attention: Flexibly shifting the focus of attention according to context
• Working Memory: Retaining and applying rules and information over a set period of time

Adults

• Complex Attention Tasks: Efficiently allocating attentional resources when visual and auditory stimuli are presented together
• Sustained Attention: Maintaining concentration even in repetitive situations
• Inhibitory Control Tasks: Suppressing unnecessary responses and selecting the target response
• Cognitive Processing Speed: Response speed and accuracy related to focused attention

Assessment Overview

• Duration: Approximately 40–60 minutes
• Method: Computer-based visual and auditory stimulus tasks
• Age Range: Ages 4 through adults