PERFORMANCE DATA FOR TRAUMATIC BRAIN-INJURED SUBJECTS ON THE GORDON DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEM (GDS) TESTS OF ATTENTION

Thirty adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) (20 males and 10 femal es, mean age 40 years) and a non-injured control soup (12 males and 13 females, mean age 41 years) were tested on 16 tests of attention incl uding three tasks of the Gordon Diagnostic System (GDS), a relatively new set of attention tasks. No differences between groups were found o n age or education. Both groups had estimated IQs in the average range . Performance data for the GDS are presented for the TBI and CON group s. Mild to moderate deficits of attention were seen in the TBI soup re lative to controls on the Vigilance and Distractibility tasks. No diff erences between groups were seen on the Standard Delay groups. Pearson product moment correlations suggested different patterns of relations hips between the GDS tasks and other tests of attention for the TBI an d CON groups. These results support the utility of the Vigilance and D istractibility tasks for assessment of attention in a mild to moderate ly injured population.