Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive Behavioral Intervention

The ucMOT was developed to be used in both research and clinical settings. Its structure was based on the task devised by Kempler et al. (1998), who adapted Daneman and Carpenter’s (1980) RST, removing several sources of added difficulty, such as its dual-task structure. Similar to the original RST, Kempler’s month ordering task comprises five span levels containing lists that range from two to six month names. Four trials are included in each span level, instead of the original three trials in the RST. The ucMOT departs from Kempler’s task with respect to the criteria for selecting the month names. Our criteria aimed to restrain the need to recruit the inhibitory processes that likely are required to reduce the interference from closely repeated month names. Hence, within each span level of the ucMOT, the month names are not repeated until the actual span level renders repetition unavoidable. This first repetition occurs in span level 4, with four repetitions. The number of repetitions increases over the following span levels and is kept to a minimum in each level. The distance between repetitions within span levels is maximized, and the creation of a trial containing only names that have already been used within the trial’s span level is systematically avoided. This latter rule is upheld until the actual span level forces its breakdown (e.g., two trials containing only within-span repetitions in span level 6). The administration procedure includes an interruption criterion, which was empirically determined to minimize information loss while reducing administration time. The task should be interrupted after the test-taker errs in all four trials of a given span level.