Do concerns about COVID-19 impair sustained attention?

Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications

Table 4 Pearson’s correlation coefficient between COVID-19 responses and CPT performance in Experiment 2. Skill index is calculated as No-go accuracy divided by Go RT

Variables	Overall A’	Reduction in A’ across blocks	Skill index	No-go (mountain) accuracy	Go (city) RT
Demographic ratings
1. Age	.04	− .04	.02	.12	*.23* *
2. Education	− .10	.06	− *.15*	− .09	.07
3. Income	− .004	− .14	− .02	.02	.06
4. Political orientation	− .09	.11	− .09	− .04	.10
5. Health status	.08	− .02	.11	.10	.05
6. Financial wellbeing	− .02	.12	.02	.02	.02
Concerns related to COVID-19
7. Health concern	.01	− .09	− .01	− .02	− .05
8. Financial concern	.01	− .003	.07	.04	− .04
9. Average of all eight items	.09	− .11	.11	.08	− .03
Behavioral compliance
10. Social distancing	− *.20*	− .002	− *.21*	− *.16*	.04
11. Hygienic behavior	.01	.07	− .01	− .01	.01

In the correlation analysis between income and other variables, participants who chose the answer “I prefer not to answer this question” were excluded, leading to N = 197. All other analyses had N = 204. Only the following correlation reached Bonferroni adjusted alpha: participants with older age showed slower RT in go responses, Pearson’s r = .23, p = .0007. Boldface italics: p < .05 (uncorrected for multiple comparisons)