Parents very often complain about the lack of attention, perseverance in children. It is difficult for dispersed people to study, work, and it is difficult to achieve success both in career and in personal life. Although to determine the level of attention and its characteristics even in a child, it is enough to pass a small and uncomplicated test. And knowing the "enemy in the face", it is easier to defeat him.
To determine the stability of attention, the ability to concentrate it, the presence of fatigue, a Bourdon proof test is used.
This technique was developed and proposed for use by a psychologist from France B. Bourdon in 1895. To this day, it is very popular because of its simplicity and versatility, especially since it has been improved by other doctors several times.
Bourdon proof test can be performed for adults and school children, as well as preschool children. There are only two conditions: a person must be sighted and able to hold a pen or pencil in his hands.
Methodology Proof Test (Bourdon Test)
In order for everything to go correctly, you need special forms and a stopwatch.
On the forms (sheet A4) Cyrillic letters are printed in random order line by line. Subjects are encouraged to cross out or underline one or more letters from this form in turn on each line.
For example, a task may sound like this: now it is necessary to underline each letter A and cross out each letter I, view each line, as when reading, you must complete the task as quickly as possible, but carefully, start working on a command. When you hear “Damn!”, Put a vertical line where you are working at that moment.
The task, as well as the order of letters in the form, is set arbitrarily. Testing every thirty or sixty seconds (for this you need a stopwatch) gives the command "Damn!". The whole experience takes 10 minutes. "Crossing out" makes it possible to trace how attention changes over time, that is, fatigue.
At the end of the test, participants are interviewed, they learn their subjective opinion about the test, its passage, the number of alleged errors, this will make it possible to more accurately interpret the numerical data.
Checking Results
The Bourdon proof test gives us the data for the table when the examiner checks the test forms with the correct answers (strikethroughs).
| Min time | Viewed letters, u | Right underlined and crossed out letters, C | Wrong underlined and crossed out letters, P | Wrongly missed letters, oh | Coefficient correctness, in | Coefficient productivity, E |
| 1 | | | | | | |
| ... | | | | | | |
| 10 | | | | | | |
| Total: | | | | | | |
The coefficients of correctness and productivity are calculated based on the data in the table, according to the formulas:
B = (C - P) / (C + O)
E = Yu x V.
To assess the ability of the test person to concentrate, there is such a formula:
K = (∑ - ∑ - ∑) / ∑ x 100%.
The results are compared with the scale:
Concentration of attention| Result% | Characteristic |
| 0-20 | very low |
| 21-40 | low |
| 41-60 | average |
| 61-80 | high |
| 81-100 | very high |
Minute results help us understand the subject’s attitude, ability to concentrate, train his mind, or relax and lose.
Method Modifications
Being successful and often used, the Bourdon proofreading test develops, various scientists bring innovations and additions to it. To date, there are already three modifications:
- Landolt rings. The research form is a series of rings with gaps in different directions. A method has been developed for people who do not know the alphabet, children.
- Method V.Ya. Anfimova. It differs in that at a certain time, the researcher begins to say aloud for 15 seconds to utter various letters in a chaotic manner. This allows you to check the degree of stability of attention in relation to external stimuli.
- Method A.G. Ivanov-Smolensky. Crossed out not one, but a combination of letters (MF - WG).
Corrective test of Bourdon. Form
If necessary, you can compose it yourself, but at the present time there are enough worthy examples. Below are some of them.
Standard form for adults.
Form for children of primary school age.
For kids, you can find forms with badges, funny faces and drawings.
Thus, it is easy to track the quantitative and qualitative level of human attention. After defining it, it’s much easier to understand where to go next, because there are also methods for strengthening and developing attention . It is important to identify its shortcomings at an early age and learn to control, train it already at school, then the learning process will be easy, interesting and without problems.