Method "Account for Krepelin": description and interpretation of test results

The "Krepelin Account" method is very well known, is in demand and is informative for psychologists-diagnosticians. Its origin, procedure of research and results, which it allows to receive, will be told further.

Emil Kraepelin: study of attention and mental performance

A well-known German psychiatrist, a researcher of most of the mental illnesses and practices in this direction, E. Kraepelin proposed this technique in 1895. Initially, it was intended to study the quality of mental activity: performance, fatigue and the ability to exercise. The "Krepelin Account" method then represented a series of numbers that in a certain period of time had to be added in the mind.

Since then, the test has undergone modifications and modifications. In particular, G. Schulte and N. Kurochkin were engaged in this. Series were added in the performance of the actions, as well as a subtraction operation, which made it possible to investigate the time of switching of attention between individual stages of testing and mathematical actions.

Patopsihologicheskoe study using the test allowed to identify some differences in the performance of tasks by a healthy person and suffering neuroses, organic brain lesions and schizophrenia. Now the technique is used in the practice of school psychology and other areas of work with healthy people, as well as in psychiatry.

Emil Krepelin is the creator of the nosological concept in psychiatry, the largest scientist of his time, thanks to which science knows about the distinctive features, causes and mechanisms of the emergence of most mental illnesses.

Method "Account for Krepelin": what is directed

To date, the technique has a fairly wide range of applications. It is used not only to study the will in the process of performing mental tasks, but also to determine the quality of attention - its switchability, stability - and the pace of mental activity.

The "Krepelin Account" method is designed to work with subjects older than the youngest adolescence. As a result, the psychologist has the opportunity to build a schedule for the sustainability of attention and the number of errors at each stage of the work and draw conclusions about the causes of possible violations.

Stimulant material and research process

The psychodiagnostic test is a pairwise arranged series of numbers (8) that need to be added or subtracted, depending on the stage of the study. The numbers are uncomplicated, accessible to the mental operations of a person who has reached adolescence.

The work begins on the team of the researcher. The person tries to add / subtract as many numbers as possible in the allotted time (30 seconds) and write the result under each of the pairs. At the end of the time, the execution ends and the point is placed at the place where the subject stopped. After performing one series of operations immediately proceed to the next. In total, the testing takes up to 5 minutes.

Processing and interpretation

After the research, the results are qualitatively and quantitatively processed. The quantitative indicator is compared with the average for the group and conclusions are drawn about the difference between this indicator. This result is the speed of work (the number of calculations performed) and the number of errors committed at each stage.

Visually, this is demonstrated by plotting the work performed, where the abscissa is the time interval number, the ordinate axis is the number of correctly performed operations. Also here the conventional signs (shaded columns) indicate the number of errors committed.

Qualitative processing of results takes into account this particular graph. It can be of four types, depending on which conclusions are drawn about the causes of the violations in the work:

1. It is characterized by minor changes at all stages. It is divided into subtypes:

• High rates for all parameters in all periods of time - a conditional "norm";
• The speed of execution is large, but there are many mistakes that indicate the anxiety of the subject and the desire to fulfill the task as quickly as possible to the detriment of the accuracy or weak stability of attention and the development of self-control;
• Reverse process - speed of execution is low, but with a minimum number of errors (the desire to perform correctly at the expense of speed, anxiety, temperament type inert);
• Low rates for both parameters (adverse result, requires additional examinations).

2. Type of graph with a pronounced decrease in the speed of work, an increase in the number of errors or with both trends. This indicates the exhaustion of attention, fatigue. Causes:

• Low level of development of voluntary attention;
• General asthenichnost rights (physical and mental);
• Organic disorders in the brain and the functionality of the central nervous system.

3. Graph in the form of a zigzag: uneven productivity of work with a different number of errors at all stages. This indicates the nervous state of the subject, the pronounced lability of the nervous system.

4. Increase the speed indicators and reduce the number of errors at each next stage of testing. This schedule is typical for people with slowed, slowed attention, slow turn-on and arbitrariness in the initial stages of work. It is also related to the type of temperament.

In addition, there are common reasons that can give an unfavorable result. This is a low interest of the subject in the actual process of work and its results, insufficient mastery of the operations of the account, the state of fatigue.