About the CTMT
Why should I trust the results?
- Neuropsychological Test
- Descriptive and evaluative
- Based on the highly popular Trail Making Test or TMT -1948 (Partington and Leiter)
Validity
Reliability
Internal Consistency : Excellent
- Chronbach's reliability coefficient 0.90 Smith et.al 2008)
- Guilford's Formula 0.92 (Reynolds 2002)
Test-Retest
- Correlation: Adequate 0.74-0.78 (Reynolds 2004)
- Content Validity: Excellent
- Statistical Methods used
- Construct Validity: Adequate
-Compared to other standardized test which measure, Processing speed (r= 0.7) and Perceptual Organization (r=0.58)
-Correlation values supported construct validity (p = 0.004)
- Criterion Validity: Not compared to a gold standard
Who is it for?
What does it assess?
- 11- 74 year old's
- Traumatic Brain Injury
- Central Nervous System Injuries
Who is it NOT for?
Brain Compromise
- Visual Search/Perception
- Sequencing
- Set-Shifting
- Visual Motor Speed
- Focused Attention
- Higher Level Cognitive Processing
- Visual problems
- Severe Visual Perception issues
- Fine motor issues in dominate hand
Administering the Test
Environment
How to administer
- Quite
- No distraction/Other people
- Lighting overhead
Clinical Utility
- 5 search and sequence tasks or "trails" + 3 Sample trails
- Increase in difficulty
- First 3 measure Simple sequencing
- Last 2 measure Complex Sequencing
- 1st sample test - can be repeated
- Trail 1, 2, 3
- 2nd sample test
- Trail 4
- 3rd sample
- Trail 5
- Sample test may be repeated, if unable to do sample -> stop test
Comprehensive Trail Making Test
(CTMT)
Scoring
- Short
- Simple instructions
- Little set-up/Few tools
- Large age range
- Relatively inexpensive
- No specialized training
- Supported by research
Raw score = time in seconds
Time in seconds converted to t-scores
T-scores converted to percentiles
"Profile of scores" = graph depicting results
Calculation of significance - is the time for each trial significantly different from that of other trials.
By Ashley Lockyer
Qualitative
Description
Severely Impaired
Mild/Mod Impaired
Below Average
Average
High Average
Superior
Very Superior
2.34
6.87
16.12
49.61
16.12
6.87
2.34
<30
30-35
36-42
43-57
58-64
65-70
>70
Lets give it a try
Discussion
- The Kristen is 12 months post car accident. Moderately severe head trauma + fractured pelvis.
- Referred OT to determine suitability to return to former work as a pipe-fitter.
- The client denies any difficulties
- Family reports that there are behavioural and cognitive difficulties – short bursts of temper, lack of concentration and attentiveness, difficulty following directions.
- No obvious motor problems.
- How could CTMT be useful clinically?
- Limitations of the CTMT ?
- Cultural issues?
- Would you use the tool? Would you pair it with others?