Sensation Measures

Health Measures Transforming How Health is Measured

NIH Toolbox Sensation Measure – Ages 18+

Construct	Measure	Description	Test Time (minutes)	Materials Required	Preview	Manual	eLearning
Audition	Words-in-Noise (WIN) Test Age 6+	Measures a person’s ability to recognize single words amid varying levels of background noise, measuring difficulty a person might have hearing in a noisy environment. A recorded voice tells the participant to listen and repeat words. Background noise gets louder, reducing the signal-to-noise ratio.			Watch Demo Video	Read User Guide	View Online Training
Vision	Visual Acuity Test Age 8+	Measures distance vision. Participant is seated 3 meters from the screen and letters are displayed one at a time. As the participant successfully identifies letters of a given size, smaller ones appear, until the software ascertains the smallest-size the participant can successfully see.			Watch Demo Video	Read User Guide	View Online Training
Olfaction	Odor Identification Test Age 10+	The ability to detect odors, to recognize and discriminate odor qualities, and to identify the sources of odors in our world.			Watch Demo Video	Read User Guide	View Online Training
Pain	Pain Interference Survey Age 18+	Computer-adaptive measure of the self-reported extent to which pain interfered with or affected enjoyment of various daily activities in the past seven days.			Preview Measure	Read User Guide	View Online Training
Taste	Regional Taste Intensity Test Age 12+	Measures perceived intensity of quinine and salt administered in liquid solutions. Participants rate intensity by touching the screen at any point on the scale from "Strongest imaginable" to "No sensation".			Watch Demo Video	Read User Guide	View Online Training
Pain	Pain Intensity Survey Age 18+	Consists of one self-report item asking about the participant’s level of pain in the past seven days. Participants are asked to rate their pain on a scale from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst imaginable pain).			Preview Measure	Read User Guide	View Online Training

NIH Toolbox Sensation Supplemental Measures – Ages 18+

Construct	Measure	Description	Test Time (minutes)	Materials Required	Preview	Manual	eLearning
Quality of Life	Vision-Related Quality of Life Age 18+	Measures self-reported quality of life related to visual function. Participant responds to 53 questions, with answer options ranging from “Not difficult at all,” to “Very difficult.”				n/a	n/a
Hearing-related Disability	Hearing Handicap Inventory Ages 18-64	n/a				n/a	n/a
Hearing-related Disability	Hearing Handicap Inventory Ages 65+	n/a				n/a	n/a

= time to complete in minutes

= additional materials or equipment needed

The NIH Toolbox Sensation measures were developed by a multi-institutional team of measurement experts as part of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research.

NIH Toolbox Sensation Measure – Ages 7-17

Construct	Measure	Description	Test Time (minutes)	Materials Required	Preview	Manual	eLearning
Audition	Words-in-Noise Test Age 6+	Measures a person’s ability to recognize single words presented amid varying levels of background noise, measuring how much difficulty a person might have hearing in a noisy environment. A recorded voice instructs the participant to listen and repeat words. Task becomes increasingly difficult as the background noise gets louder, reducing the signal-to-noise ratio.			Watch Demo Video	Read User Guide	View Online Training
Vision	Visual Acuity Test Age 8+	Measures distance vision. Participant is seated 3 meters from the screen at eye level, and letters are displayed one at a time for the participant to identify, using both eyes at the same time. As the participant successfully identifies letters of a given size, smaller ones appear, until the software ascertains the smallest-size optotype the participant can successfully see.			Watch Demo Video	Read User Guide	View Online Training
Olfaction	Odor Identification Test Ages 3-9; Odor Identification Test Age 10+	The ability to detect odors, to recognize and discriminate odor qualities, and to identify the sources of odors in our world.			Watch Demo Video	Read User Guide	View Online Training
Taste	Regional Taste Intensity Test Age 12+	Measures perceived intensity of quinine and salt administered in liquid solutions. Participants rate intensity by touching the screen at any point on the scale from "Strongest imaginable" to "No sensation".			Watch Demo Video	Read User Guide	View Online Training

= time to complete in minutes

= additional materials or equipment needed

The NIH Toolbox Sensation measures were developed by a multi-institutional team of measurement experts as part of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research.

NIH Toolbox Sensation Measure – Ages 3-6

Construct	Measure	Description	Test Time (minutes)	Materials Required	Preview	Manual	eLearning
Audition	Words-in-Noise Test Age 6+	Measures a person’s ability to recognize single words amid varying levels of background noise, measuring difficulty a person might have hearing in a noisy environment. A recorded voice tells the participant to listen and repeat words. Background noise gets louder, reducing the signal-to-noise ratio .			Watch Demo Video	Read User Guide	View Online Training
Vision	Visual Acuity Test Ages 3 -7	Measures distance vision. Participant is seated 3 meters from the screen and letters are displayed one at a time. As the participant successfully identifies letters of a given size, smaller ones appear, until the software ascertains the smallest-size the participant can successfully see.			Watch Demo Video	Read User Guide	View Online Training
Olfaction	Odor Identification Test Ages 3-9	The ability to detect odors, to recognize and discriminate odor qualities, and to identify the sources of odors in our world.			Watch Demo Video	Read User Guide	View Online Training

= time to complete in minutes

= additional materials or equipment needed

The NIH Toolbox Sensation measures were developed by a multi-institutional team of measurement experts as part of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research.