FAQ

1. Am I eligible for CogState Research?

The price of CogState Research is discounted from commercial prices. This reflects the value that CogState places upon participating in ongoing scientific research.

Only an "Eligible Academic Study" can utilize the CogState Research product. To qualify as an Eligible Academic Study, the study must:

Be funded by an academic funding body.
Not form part of a submission to a regulatory body (e.g. FDA).
Be undertaken with the intention of publication.
Not have any restrictions on publication imposed by a for-profit company.

For more detail, please read through our terms & conditions.

2. What are the advantages of CogState Research over paper and pencil testing?

Paper and pencil tests are particularly useful when assessing the pattern of cognitive abilities that might be impaired by a disease or intervention. However, they often require highly trained administrators to conduct and score the test. While this helps to ensure correct administration of a test, administrator/scoring bias cannot be avoided. When part of a study, paper and pencil test data often needs to be entered manually into the CRF, introducing the additional risk of transcription errors (estimated to occur in some studies in up to 30% of data). Furthermore, times recorded by administrators during paper and pencil tests are usually restricted to seconds. Computerized testing in research studies can offer a more reliable test (such that retests get similar results) by reducing human errors in data recording, observer bias and transcription. Administration can easily be standardized allowing non-expert supervisors. Reaction times can be recorded in milliseconds and data are saved and securely transmitted to DataPoint® (CogState's secure upload website) with no requirement for entry of the data into the study CRF.

3. Why are CogState tests significantly faster than competitor tests?

CogState tasks are designed and optimized to collect as much data about performance (i.e. speed and accuracy) in as short a time as possible. Each task uses a single trial to collect one data point (or observation of a participant's response) in a few seconds and then repeats this trial multiple times (using randomization as much as possible). In 1-2 minutes, 30 or more observations can be obtained, sufficient for detailed statistical analyses. This allows CogState batteries to sample multiple cognitive abilities in minutes. Many other tests gain only one or a few observations after minutes of testing, and hence their batteries may require many minutes or even hours to sample multiple cognitive domains.

4. Who can administer CogState Research?

CogState Research is administered by a computer and requires only supervision. This test supervisor can be anyone who has completed the brief CogState training workbook. Prior neuropsychological assessment experience is not necessary.

5. What can you tell me about the scientific validity of the tasks in a test battery?

Each CogState test has been through a full development process to confirm its face validity, construct/criterion validity, reliability and sensitivity to cognitive change as a result of intervention (drug) or disease progression, or indeed to no change in the absence of these circumstances. Research using CogState batteries has been published in over 100 peer-reviewed journals. Each test has been developed with specific requirements in mind to ensure sensitivity to specific cognitive domains.

6. How often can I test participants?

The CogState tasks are designed to be rapid and repeatable. Since they involve multiple trials within each task, practice effects are rapidly minimized. Hence, they can be repeated as soon as the test completes, if required.

7. What can you tell me about dataflow?

Test data are saved as encrypted files (one file per test session) on the local testing computer. If that computer is connected to the internet then following testing, you can send the data directly from the computer to the CogState server via SSL Secure transmission. If the testing computer is not connected to the internet, the encrypted files are saved to a USB stick and this USB stick is taken to any computer with internet connection. The user will browse to DataPoint - CogState's online data upload and monitoring tool - and upload the data here via SSL Secure transmission. If the data is modified in any way, the file will be unable to be decrypted.

Researchers are able to view data immediately following upload of data to CogState via DataPoint. The test date/time and subject IDs can be viewed in addition to test results in the form of outcome measures per task. CRFs displaying the outcome variables from each test session can be accessed from DataPoint as pdf files.

Data are stored securely on the CogState server until time of archive.

8. Who owns the data at the completion of a trial?

CogState Research is a tool to collect data from your study participants on your behalf. CogState makes no claim to the data itself, either during or after a trial. All data collected belong to you. CogState will not use any data without the express permission of the customer. However, we request that you acknowledge CogState in your references, stating that it is a trademark and send CogState an electronic copy of any paper you publish using data derived from CogState testing.

9. Can visually impaired participants complete a test battery?

Some forms of visual impairment may not be a problem. A person with color blindness can usually discriminate the different card stimuli by cues other than color. A person with reduced visual acuity might be able to be tested, so it is usually worth trying them out on the battery required. If they can "see" the stimuli, then even if they are a bit slower than average, testing will still be possible because most studies will be comparing them to their own baseline performance. If a participant usually wears glasses he/she should also ensure they are wearing them when performing the battery.

10. Can hearing impaired participants complete a test battery?

The tasks use sounds to provide feedback when correct responses are made, or errors occur. The feedback sounds are helpful to learn tasks quickly and monitor for errors, however, they are not essential. Visual feedback also occurs and this can be used to interactively monitor performance. If a participant usually wears a hearing aid he/she should ensure they are wearing it when performing the battery.

11. Can severely impaired participants be tested?

In this context, severely impaired usually refers to severe cognitive impairment. In general, the CogState tasks are designed to be used with minimum supervision. Persons with severe cognitive impairment will likely require additional supervision. Nevertheless, if supervisor assistance is integral to the trial design, CogState tasks can be customized to test difficult (e.g. distractable, psychotic, depressed) or impaired patients.