Some visual cancellation tasks and visual scanning task are used to measure processing speed, you have to take into account that these tasks are visual and also requiere that the patient doesn't have visual limitations and that he/she is able to hold a pen and move his hands "normally".

One limitation you may encounter is that the patients forget the rules of cancellation.

Thanks for your reply Jorge Darío López Sánchez, do these tasks have a specific name (are they part of a neuropsychological test?) and do you know if these are part of the routine clinical assessment in memory clinic?

Hi Emma Richards you can found them in different tests, e,g, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV) has 3 processing speed subscales: Symbol search, Coding, and Cancellation. But there are many more that are similar to these.

Part of the routine in memory clinics i don't know, what i do in the lab is: Assess general cognition with Mini Mental State Examination, Depressive symptoms with Yesavage's Geriatric Depresion Scale, Anxiety with Beck's Anxiety Inventory, Daily living activities (here you can use a variety of tests), evaluate Cognitive reserve, check medical history, and if something pops up i complement the assessment with other tests (you can use only 1 or 2 subtests depending on your clinical observations) like WAIS-IV or Neuropsi (this is a neuropsychological battery but it's in spanish).

Hello Emma, there are cancellation task for speed of processing assessment. You can use the Trails A for speed and get an additional info on executive function with Trails B (switching). Our company has a computerized version on cogquiz.com with an additional reaction time speed test. Withing trails there is a computerized connections test similar to Salthouse's test and you can activate distractors. Norms are currently be collected on this test.

I hope you find it useful

Digit Cancellation Test:

Zazzo R. Test des deux barrages. Actualités pédagogiques et psychologiques . Neuchâtel, Switzerland: Delachaux et Nestlé; 1974.

Pattern Comparison Test:

Salthouse TA Babcock RL. Decomposing adult age differences in working memory. Development Psychol . 1991;27:763–776.

Regards