Table 1 BOCA subscales, example questions, and scoring
Subscale | Subscale description | Max. Score |
|---|---|---|
1. Memory / Immediate Recall | The names of 5 animals are announced verbally. After a short pause, 16 buttons are displayed indicating the names of the 5 announced animals and 11 other random animals. The participant is expected to select the 5 announced animals. This subscale includes three attempts scored as follows: all five animals selected correctly on the 1st attempt: 2 points; all five animals selected correctly on the 2nd attempt: 1 point; otherwise, zero point. | 2 |
2. Language / Prefrontal Synthesis | Questions are announced verbally and the participant is expected to select the answer by pressing a picture on the screen. | |
Training: Integration of one modifier. E.g., ‘select the blue square,’ ‘select the green triangle.’ | 0 | |
Level 1: Integration of one modifier. E.g., ‘select the blue square,’ ‘select the green triangle.’ | 1 | |
Level 2: Integration of two modifiers. E.g., ‘select the large blue square,’ ‘select the small green triangle.’ | 1 | |
Level 3: Spatial prepositions on top of and under. E.g., ‘select the square on top of the circle,’ ‘select the circle under the triangle.’ | 1 | |
Level 4: Two objects integration. E.g., ‘If the tiger was eaten by the lion, who is still alive?’; ‘If the boy was overtaken by the girl, who won?’ | 1 | |
Level 5: Three objects integration. E.g., ‘The girl is taller than the boy. The monkey is taller than the girl. Who is the shortest?’ | 1 | |
3. Visuospatial Reasoning / Mental rotation | The participant is expected to select the object, that, when rotated, is identical to the object on top. | |
Training: easy | 0 | |
Level 1: easy | 1 | |
Level 2: moderate | 1 | |
Level 3: challenging | 1 | |
4. Executive function / Clock test | The participant is expected to calculate the time difference between the two clocks. | |
Training: easy | 0 | |
Level 1: easy | 2 | |
Level 2: moderate | 1 | |
Level 3: challenging | 1 | |
5. Attention | The participant is instructed to click the announced digits in forward and backward order. | |
Training: Click the 4 digits in the order that you hear them | 0 | |
Level 1: Click the 4 digits in the order that you hear them | 1 | |
Level 2: Click the 5 digits in the order that you hear them | 1 | |
Level 3: Click the 3 digits in the backward order | 1 | |
Level 4: Click the 4 digits in the backward order | 1 | |
6. Mental math | The participant performs mental math by adding or subtracting two numbers. | |
Training: Single-digit number addition. E.g., 7 + 6 =? | 0 | |
Level 1: Single-digit number addition. E.g., 7 + 6 =? | 1 | |
Level 2: One-digit number plus two-digit number. E.g., 7 + 16 =? | 1 | |
Level 3: Two-digit number plus two-digit number. E.g., 17 + 16 =? | 1 | |
Level 4: Two-digit number minus two-digit number. E.g., 37–16 =? | 1 | |
7. Orientation | The participant is expected to select today’s month, year, and day of the week. | |
Level 1: What month is it today? | 1 | |
Level 2: What year is it today? | 1 | |
Level 3: What day of the week is it today? | 1 | |
8. Memory / Delayed Recall | The participant is expected to select the five animals named at the beginning of the test. The score equals to the number of correctly named animals. | 5 |
Total maximum score | 30 |