Drug Abuse Prevention Training: Feasibility of Electrophysiological Assessment
Abstract
Evaluating attention to, and interest in, training materials depends primarily on voluntary verbal and written feedback from individuals, usually in the form of questionnaires or tests. The objective of this report is to describe research, which would determine the feasibility of using electrophysiological methods to assess the effectiveness of drug abuse prevention training. Drug abuse prevention videotapes were evaluated using irrelevant auditory probes to generate event related brain potentials (ERPs) from the scalp frontal regions of 26 individuals. The subjects were divided equally into two interest groups (HIGH vs. LOW) based on questionnaire factor analysis scores. When prevideo baselines for the HIGH and LOW groups were compared, no differences were found. Statistically reliable differences were found between prevideo baseline and video segments for the ERP. The current research suggests that using auditory irrelevant probe stimuli, and the resulting ERP records, may provide an unobtrusive and objective measure of information, which may not be available through traditional behavioral measures. It is expected that with further development, early ERP components would improve the development and assessment of the effectiveness of education and training materials.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA335227
Entities
People
- David L. Ryan-jones
- Gregory W. Lewis
Organizations
- Bureau of Naval Personnel