Previous studies revealed that performance in paper-and-pencil tests of attention, such as the d2-R test, improves with practice, though the sources of these practice effects are yet unknown. Practice effects in psychometric tests are a serious problem because they impede the evaluation of test performance and constrain the utility of these tests. This study addresses the role of target-specific learning for practice in a d2-like paper-and-pencil test of attention. Two variants of a d2-like test, which exclusively differed in the set of target stimuli, were constructed. Participants were tested on two days separated by one week. Participants in the control condition searched for the same targets (among the same distractors) in each session, whereas participants in the test group searched for different targets (among the same distractors) in each session. Results showed practice benefits in both groups, but benefits were larger in the control group than in the test group. The results suggest that practice improves the processing of target features in paper-and-pencil tests of attention. Hence, using two versions with different sets of targets may effectively reduce practice effects in d2-like tests of attention. Further implications of the findings are discussed.

中文翻译：

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特定目标学习有助于提高纸笔注意力测试的实践效果

先前的研究表明，在纸笔注意力测试（例如 d2-R 测试）中的表现会随着练习而提高，尽管这些练习效果的来源尚不清楚。心理测试中的实践效果是一个严重的问题，因为它们阻碍了测试性能的评估并限制了这些测试的效用。本研究探讨了特定目标学习在类似 d2 的纸笔注意力测试中的作用。构建了 d2 样测试的两个变体，它们在目标刺激集上完全不同。参与者在相隔一周的两天内接受测试。控制条件下的参与者在每个会话中搜索相同的目标（在相同的干扰项中），而测试组的参与者在每个会话中搜索不同的目标（在相同的干扰项中）。结果显示，两组的练习都有好处，但对照组的好处比测试组大。结果表明，练习改进了纸笔注意力测试中目标特征的处理。因此，在类似 d2 的注意力测试中，使用具有不同目标集的两个版本可以有效地降低练习效果。讨论了这些发现的进一步影响。在类似 d2 的注意力测试中，使用具有不同目标集的两个版本可以有效地降低练习效果。讨论了这些发现的进一步影响。在类似 d2 的注意力测试中，使用具有不同目标集的两个版本可以有效地降低练习效果。讨论了这些发现的进一步影响。