Research FAQ

The TOVA Company makes the T.O.V.A. available for use in approved research studies. If you are affiliated with a university or clinical training program, you can use the T.O.V.A. for student research projects as part of a clinical training program site license. Please write or call for details.

We provide a Special Rate Program to support qualified researchers, schools, and clinical training programs 

Institutional Review Board approval is a requirement for all research that takes place in the context of a university, hospital or large practice group. In short, if the institution with which you are affiliated has an IRB, then yes, you will almost certainly need to get their approval. We also ask for evidence of IRB approval as part of the application. Note that failure to obtain IRB approval may also make it harder to get your work published.

You may install the T.O.V.A. software on as many computers as you wish. Your T.O.V.A. test credits are stored on your T.O.V.A. hardware, so you can simply take the hardware with you when you go to your research site, and simply plug it in to the computer when you are ready to collect data.

If you are using the T.O.V.A. External Audio/Video (EAV) hardware setup, it will be more difficult and time consuming to move your T.O.V.A. hardware between computers. In this case, we recommend purchasing another T.O.V.A. kit.

If you have multiple sites at which you are collecting data, please do take pains to keep your data files well backed-up and organized!

The TOVA Company has helped numerous graduate students complete their degrees, and has had a supportive role in the research of many established researchers and clinicians. We have projects that we’d like to see done, but we’d be happy to help you or your students with your ideas, too.

At present, we are most interested in supporting research that addresses the following:

• T.O.V.A. performance in blast trauma survivors
• T.O.V.A. performance in patients with anxiety disorders
• T.O.V.A. performance in patients with depression
• Use of the T.O.V.A. for ADHD medication management
• Treatment (other than pharmacotherapy) outcomes
• Diurnal effects on T.O.V.A. performance
• T.O.V.A. performance in specific diseases
  Test-retest of the auditory T.O.V.A.
• Auditory T.O.V.A. performance in known language-based LD cases
• Correlation of visual and auditory T.O.V.A. in normals and general clinical cases
• Effects of instruction to “fake bad” in adolescents and children on the T.O.V.A. visual and auditory tests
• Performance in groups that may be malingering
• Personality research and T.O.V.A. profiles (e.g., Conscientiousness, executive functioning, and T.O.V.A. performance)
• T.O.V.A. performance in unaffected persons (e.g. normal controls in your research)
• T.O.V.A. performance in third-world populations
• T.O.V.A. performance in low income or ethnically diverse samples
• Screening for attention disorders in school children and other samples

Again, feel free to contact us with your ideas. We are interested in hearing about the things that you want to investigate.

Administration instructions are provided in the T.O.V.A. Clinical Manual. We’ve also prepared a short document called A Guide to Using the T.O.V.A. in Research that you should review before undertaking the design or implementation of your study.

In general, you should be sure to administer the T.O.V.A. at a consistent time in the morning, with the same directions (see the Guide or Clinical Manual), and with an examiner present in the room at all times during the administration of the T.O.V.A. The T.O.V.A. was normed as the first test given. Significant deviation from this procedure may impact your findings if you are comparing your results to the T.O.V.A. normative sample.

The T.O.V.A. is one of the most sensitive psychophysiological tests that you can use for clinical work or research. Over one hundred fifty published studies (and thousands of clinical and research users) attest to the utility of this measure.

Because of its sensitivity to nearly any factor that impacts alertness or attention, the T.O.V.A. must be used carefully. Sequence effects, diurnal effects, different instructions, and examiner presence/absence all have the potential to affect the results. Ideally, you would administer the T.O.V.A. as the first task of your battery, at the start of the session (and in the morning). We recognize that you may not be able to meet all of these requirements, so you should strive for consistency in the manner in which the task is administered. If not the first task in a battery, take pains to ensure that it is administered at the same point in the battery across subjects. Please review the A Guide to Using the T.O.V.A. in Research for more information.

As you plan your research battery, keep in mind that each administration of the T.O.V.A. takes about 25-30 minutes (a three minute practice test before the first full test plus 21.6 minutes or 11 minutes for 2.5 to 5 year olds). You should not administer the visual and auditory T.O.V.A. “back to back” – we recommend administering them about 90 minutes apart or on different days).

Greenberg, L. M. (2007). The Test of Variables of Attention (Version 7.3) [Computer software]. Langley, WA: The TOVA Company.

Greenberg, L. M. (2011). The Test of Variables of Attention (Version 8.0) [Computer software]. Langley, WA: The TOVA Company.

When referring to content in the T.O.V.A. Clinical or Professional manuals, the works should be cited in this manner:

Leark, R. A., Greenberg, L. K., Kindschi, C. L., Dupuy, T. R., & Hughes, S. J. (2007). Test of Variables of Attention: Professional Manual. Langley, WA: The TOVA Company.

Greenberg, L. K., Kindschi, C. L., Dupuy, T. R., & Holder, C. (2007). Test of Variables of Attention: Clinical Manual. Langley, WA: The TOVA Company.

The T.O.V.A. is widely recognized as one of the most useful measures of attention available. However, as with physiological measurements (e.g., assay of catecholamine metabolites, genetic testing, functional imaging), and other attention-sensitive tasks (P-300 tasks, n-back tasks, stop-signal tasks, gambling tasks, Posner’s Attention Network Test, the Test of Everyday Attention, and many measures of executive functioning), the behaviorally-defined DSM-IV criteria for ADHD are better predicted with the use of behavioral checklists that embed the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria themselves. This is a simple artifact of method variance, as the DSM criteria were themselves derived with the use of such instruments.

Objective measures play an increasingly important role in characterizing a patient’s unique expression of attention and behavior, eliminate rater bias, and are much more sensitivity to subtle treatment effects than questionnaires or diagnostic checklists. Tasks such as the T.O.V.A. are understood to more closely reflect underlying neurological processes that control attention, help to distinguish between potential subtypes, and play a critical role in differential diagnosis of attention problems and other phenotypically similar diagnoses.

Ultimately, your choice of additional measures for a study depends upon your research question. We find that a wide-scope clinical measure such as the Behavior Assessment System for Children-Second Edition is a useful addition because it is helpful in considering the presence of co-morbid or “masking” disorders. You may also consider using the Vanderbilt Rating Scales, or other commonly used behavior rating scales as an adjunct to the T.O.V.A. Use of a DSM-IV symptom checklist is a simple, quick way help you better understand the diagnostic status of your sample. We also recommend the Behavioral Rating Scale of Executive Functioning (BRIEF) as a tool to obtain additional information about the real-world functioning of subjects. There are also other instruments to consider. Please feel free to contact the T.O.V.A. research team at research@thetovacompany.com with questions.

We hope this information is useful in planning and implementing your study. Feel free to call or write any time if we can assist you in your work.

And thanks for being a T.O.V.A. research user!

The T.O.V.A. Team