Is the PASAT past it? Testing attention and concentration without numbers

The Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT) is a test of attention and concentration in which participants add each number from a taped list to the one preceding it (Gronwall & Wrightson, 1974). As it requires mental addition at an externally determined pace the task often causes anxiety (Roman, Edwall, Buchanan, & Patton, 1991). We devised the Paced Auditory Serial Opposites Task (PASOT) as a nonnumerical replacement (Deary, 2001). PASOT and PASAT were administered to 40 participants, and the correlation between them was .71. The correlations of the PASOT and other cognitive measures did not differ significantly from those of the PASAT (with the exception of Digit Span Backward). Performing the PASOT was significantly less aversive; the PASAT induced more negative feelings of Tense Arousal (t((38)) = -4.52, p < .001).