What is it about?
DigiSpan is a new computer-controlled auditory test of forward and reverse digit span, designed to be administered by clinicians. DigiSpan mimics conventional live-voice tests in that it commences with trials that ascend in length until a stopping criterion is met, giving rise to a conventional scaled score. It then administers five additional adaptive trials, the length of which depends on the correctness of the response to the previous trial. Each of these two segments of the measurement gives rise to a scaled score. The ascending and adaptive scores are averaged to give an overall score, and subtracted to produce an internal measure of consistency, and hence reliability. This paper shows that the test is more accurate than the live voice versions of digit span testing that it replaces.
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Why is it important?
The test improves upon the long-standing live-voice testing of digit span. Advantages include a more standardized delivery, increased accuracy (because of the additional adaptive trials, as shown in the article), internal reliability check, and instantaneous, automated age-appropriate scoring.
Perspectives
Availability of the test will make it easier for clinicians (audiologists, speech pathologists, psychologists) to perform digit span testing. Hopefully, fewer children who have deficits in short-term or working memory will have these deficits overlooked when their problems in auditory processing, speech understanding, or language ability are being investigated and remediated.
Harvey Dillon
Macquarie University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: DigiSpan: Development and Evaluation of a Computer-Based, Adaptive Test of Short-Term Memory and Working Memory, Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, July 2024, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
DOI: 10.1044/2024_jslhr-23-00466.
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