Coordination as a Crucial Component of Performance on a Sustained Attention Test Evidence From the Digit-Symbol Substitution Test

Coordination is a well-known concept in experimental psychology. The coordination of action patterns was also proposed as a key determinant in paper-pencil sustained attention/concentration tests. To date, however, no studies have tried to prove the relevance of coordination ability in sustained attention tests. We conducted two studies (n = 199 and n = 132) to experimentally vary a prominent sustained attention tests: the Digit-Symbol Substitution Test. Using an approach derived from multitasking research, we extracted a residual that presumably comprised variance due to coordination. This presumption was confirmed in Study 1: The coordination ability was stable, correlated significantly with other paper-pencil sustained attention tests, and was also related to the executive function switching. In Study 2, a different approach led to similar results: We could show that practice gains can be attributed to an improved ability to coordinate basic action patterns. It is concluded that coordination is a core element of sustained attention/concentration.