Inability to Concentrate
F. G. SPEAR M.D., D.P.M.1 and
R. GREEN M.B., Ch.B.2
1 Consultant Psychiatrist, Middlewood Hospital, Sheffield
2 House Officer, Royal Hospital, Sheffield
Two subjective and six experimental assessments of what might be described as "ability to concentrate" were made on 22 psychiatric patients. The findings were related to each other, to age, presence of subjective retardation, and psychiatric diagnosis. The subjective assessments of concentration correlated significantly with each other, but only one of them correlated significantly with any of the experimental tests. Intercorrelations between the experimental tests were considered to be largely related to the test structure. Age correlates significantly with errors on the "serial sevens" test. Patients reporting subjective retardation make significantly fewer errors on "serial sevens" and significantly more errors when recording digits spoken aloud. It is suggested that inability to concentrate as reported by patients is related to a failure of motivation, and that the phenomenon may be much reduced by the external stimulus of the test situation.
Submitted on November 19, 1965
