Usability Report on the Battery

Questions: Create a usability report on the battery using the three sections outlined below. 1. Write an Executive Summary. 2. Write a requirements analysis and/or a task analysis. 3. Conduct a usability analysis on the device. Answers: Executive summary Cogstate Brief Battery is a playing card based battery and it is administered by IT technologies. Diseases such as schizophrenia, Alzheimers disease, dementia, depression, etc., which are neurodegenerative are screened by this battery. The ability of individuals in cognitive tasks are measured by this battery which are impaired with the diseases (Cogstate, 2015., Maruff et al., 2013). There are four tests which the battery is composed of. The tests have been designed so as to measure different domain of diseases. The four tests are as follows: Detection Test: Processing speed is measured by this test through the use of reaction time paradigm. Identification Test: Attention is measured by this test through the use of a choice reaction time paradigm One Card Learning Test: Visual Learning is measured by this test through the use of a pattern separation paradigm and One-back Test: Working memory is measured by this test through the use of an end back paradigm (Cogstate, 2015). Exploration of The One Card Learning Task and The Detection Task will be done for the purpose of this analysis. The clinical trials of Cogstate provide the scientific services and products for optimization of the design and execution of the clinical trials aimed at establishing the cognitive effects of the investigation or the marked products. The designs have the computer tests which are specific to patients populations, in this case, they are reliable for use, brief and concise, valid, sensitive to the changes across the languages and cultural aspects. The cogstate gives the provisions for management for scale, monitoring services, and the paper and pencil neuropsychological testing, and questionarres for the patient reports the outcome. Requirement analysis The batteries engage the study subjects which are the cogstate tests are known to be brief in the industry. For the appropriate site staff it involved with scheduling in the patient and also do the requirement study analysis, and at the end of the survey appreciate the ease use of the cogstate system. The products delivered in the approach of various platforms which are the laptops, web based and also on the tablets. In this case, they do not require to checked by an expert in neuropsychologist, but they can conduct from remote access. The training process for the system is easy. The system has to meet all the relevant regulatory and security requirements, also, the clinical data integrity. The system is procedure guidelines are in line with the ISO 9001:2008. The computerized tests in the cogstate clinical trials have provision rapid, sensitive, and valid measure of the different cognitive functions. The tests use novel and verbal stimuli to enhance the assessment. All the tasks are designed for repetitive practices in the little training and learning factors making them a high factor for the clinical trials. The batteries comprise of some individual tasks each designed to a particular area of cognition. Each single task battery is customizable. The services includes are scientific consultations, scales management; it also includes the selection, training, certification, recalibrations and the quality control measures. The teams in the clinical developments always the cost efficient and scale and high quality cognitive data. The management and training services are provided by the cogstate. High quality cognitive data is of the essence, and will result in the generation and collection of valid questionnaires. The baseline and change in the range of cognitive domains are measured by various cognitive tasks which are computerized. Memory, attention, language cognition, executive function and emotional cognition can be assessed by specific tasks. Not only that the effect of drugs, nutraceuticals, devices are also determined by the batteries. The batteries re also used in screening programs and large scale sports medicine programs. International peer reviewed journals have also validated the cogstate testing method. A wide range of cognitive domains such as attention cognition, social-emotional cognition, simple reaction tome are targeted by these batteries. The tests are designed to decrease the noise from cognitive records taken from the trials in research and increase the signal . and The ability has been proven to detect both the reduction in the in cognition and improvement. Usability analysis on the device There has been extensive use of Cogstate batteries for assessing a number of diseases. Four cognitive domains are assessed by the Cogstate batteries. These are Working memory Visual learning Attention Processing speed Any of the four tests which have been mentioned in the starting of the paper may be used by researchers for measuring the domains. The researchers may choose test according to their suitability and convenience. The use of the cogstate batteries have been very reliable as it has been tested by a large number of researchers. A huge range of language and cultural groups have used these tests and given positive feedbacks with respect to reliability of the batteries. Using and navigation of minimal interface is easy. The difference between a failed and a successful experiment can be made by the services provided by the Cogstate. It will be helpful for the clinical teams. Assessment of cognitive functions in both younger and older adults and in clinical gropus suffering from pysochologiocal illness and dementian are done by the costate batteries. The battery has always been described in detail in the scientific literature and used broadly to guide clinical decision making in early phase settings. Due of its brevity and lack of generation of any practice effects upon repeated administration, it can be given many times in a single day and then on many days in the same experiment. The psychometric characteristics of the Cogstate Early Phase battery and its demonstrated sensitivity to change associated with drug effects are the subject of numerous for peer-review scientific journal publications. In the early phase Clinical Research Units want to imlement a proven, sensitive and rapid test battery to measure the cognitive effect of the new drugs of their Pharmaceutical Sponsor clients, the Cogstate scientific consultancy , software, training and data monitoring systems enable fast yet precise cognitive data collection. The other test batteries, the Cogstate Early Phase battery is easy to use, engaging and brief for subjects. For site staff, the system is quick to set-up, requires minimal training, is very easy to use and requires minimal data reconciliation work. Assessment of the device Benefits are accrued to battery users of targeted clinical population. The users do not need to learn the use of battery and they are also not distracted by the new information while progressing through the test. Thus there is not more interference from the programming which are assessed by the battery. However, there are certain flaws associated with the use of the battery. The Cogstate Research comprises a customizable range of computerized cognitive tasks able to conduct baseline and change in a wide variety of cognitive domains. The baseline and change in the range of cognitive domains are measured by various cognitive tasks which are computerized. Memory, attention, language cognition, executive function and emotional cognition can be assessed by specific tasks. Not only that the effect of drugs, nutraceuticals, devices are also determined by the batteries. It would not be feasible to use the batteries in screening and large-scale sports medicine programs. Audition of the quality and data systems are done by global pharmaceutical companies and by independent consultants. There are flaws associated with the use of battery. The feedbacks of error should be shown in red because red is accepted as an error colour. There is problem in understanding the error tone which accompanies the display as it cannot be heard properly. There are also certain guess abilities associated with the test and both my volunteer and I did not require the reading of detailed instructions while applying the test. There were concise instructions written and the instruction page also contained a start button. Signifiers and conventional constraints were used by the start button. The button was dark and it lit up once an user proceeds. Mapping was also used to establish a similarity between the onscreen keys and the keyboard keys. Thus I completed using the battery without going through much of the instructions. I could easily identify what needed to be done. The feedback for correct responses was being shown in green which was quite pleasing. However the error feedbacks were accompanied by low tone and blue cross and I did not find pleasing at all in the beginning. It created a kind of confusion. I tried to click on the no and yes button as it seemed to me that those buttons were clickable which were actually not. The mapping of the two keys on screen which were analogous to the keyboard was however appreciable. The tasks were quite lengthy and at some points I was getting really confused whether I was still in the practice test or in the real test. The tests being lengthy I was getting a bit bored as well. These were the minor problems associated with the performance of the tasks. Overall the tests have been designed quite well and it was a pleasant experience for me. References Alzheimers disease. BMC Pharmacology Toxicology, 1. doi: 10.1186/2050-7283-1-30 Barbas, N., Darby, D., Giordani, B., Hammers, D., Heidebrink, J., Persad, C., Ryan, K., Spurgeon, E.(2012). Validity of a brief computerized cognitive screening test in dementia. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 25, 89 99. Doi:10.1177/0891988712447894 Cogstate Ltd. (2015, October 10). Cogstate brief battery. Retrieved from: community-dwelling older adults. J Alzheimers.Dis 2011;27(3):627-37. Lim YY, Ellis KA, Harrington K, Ames D, Martins RN, Masters CL, et al. Use of the CogState Brief Battery in the assessment of Alzheimer's disease related cognitive impairment in the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle (AIBL) study. J Clin Exp.Neuropsychol. 2012;34(4):345-58. Lim, Y. Y., Jaeger, J., Harrington, K., Ashwood, T., Ellis, K. a, Stffler, A., Maruff, P. (2013). Three- Month Stability of the CogState Brief Battery in Healthy Older Adults. Louey, A. G., Cromer, J. A., Schembri, A. J., Darby, D. G., Maruff, P., Makdissi, M., Mccrory, P. (2014). Detecting cognitive impairment after concussion: sensitivity of change from baseline and normative data methods using the CogSport/Axon cognitive test battery. Archives of Clinical Maruff P, Thomas E, Cysique L, Brew B, Collie A, Snyder P, et al. Validity of the CogState brief battery: relationship to standardized tests and sensitivity to cognitive impairment in mild traumatic brain injury, schizophrenia, and AIDS dementia complex. Arch.Clin Neuropsychol. 2009;24(2):165-78. Maruff, P., Lim, Y. Y., Darby, D., Ellis, K. A., Pietrzak, R. H., Snyder P. J., Bush, A. I., Szoeke, C., Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimers Disease: Results from the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers, and Lifestyle-Rate of Change Substudy (AIBL-ROCS). Archives of clinical neuropsych.