FAQs

Usability

  • The ACS is developed and validated to assess cognitive functioning in adults (18+). The ACS is not suitable for children.

    Although the ACS was originally developed for patients with cancer outside of the central nervous system, during the last years the ACS has been extensively studied and proven feasible in patients with central nervous system cancer and other clinical populations as well. Users encounter few problems while completing the tests and find the ACS not too long or too burdensome.

  • Most users can complete the ACS without problems, including users who are older or have little computer experience. The ACS is designed in such a way that the tests require as little computer experience as possible. Additionally, through our clear instruction videos and practice examples with feedback, even users with little computer experience should be able to complete the tests. We do however require that users should be able to independently send an email.

  • Repeated testing is possible using the ACS. Practice effects have been investigated in normative populations with intervals of 6 weeks, 6 months, and 9 months. Practice effects are generally quite modest. For the Wordlist learning task, for which practice effects tend to be the biggest, parallel word lists have been developed. Repeated measurement data from normative populations can be used to correct for potential practice effects.

  • No, the ACS is not intended for individual use.

  • The ACS can be used in a clinical setting for research purposes. It cannot be used as a substitute for clinical neuropsychological assessment. Compared to a formal neuropsychological assessment, the ACS administers a limited number of tests and has limited normative data. The ACS was originally developed and validated for scientific research to observe differences between large groups of participants. The ACS tests are not tailored to individual situations and have not been validated for individual interpretation of test results.

Test administration

  • It is not possible to complete the ACS on a tablet or smartphone.  

    The ACS is specifically designed to be completed on a computer or laptop, to mimic the setting of a traditional neuropsychological assessment, where tests are administered in a standardized environment face-to-face to a test instructor, as closely as possible.

  • The tests are programmed to run on all major internet browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari) and on all common operating systems (Windows, MacOS, Linux).

  • In our experience, most users react positively to the test and find the test not to be too taxing. We have included two short breaks during which users can relax by looking at a short animation video. A lot of users find comfort in making the tests from home.

Test battery

  • No, you can make a selection of the subtests and only administer those tests you need.

  • Yes, within the portal multiple batteries can be build. These can be customized in terms of composition and order. Do keep in mind that the interval between the Wordlist Learning and Delayed Recall test should be between 20 and 30 minutes. You can contact us to discuss the options.

  • Yes, it is possible to build a new questionnaire in the ACS. If desired, we will evaluate the possibilities in consultation with the ACS programmer. Note that non-standard adjustments (e.g., adding new components to the ACS, altering the contents of existing components, developing new questionnaires) will bring additional costs and require extra time for development. The additional costs will be determined in consultation with the ACS programmer.

Data

  • The ACS collects only anonymized data. Raw scores of the included tests and questions is collected, as well as data on completion date and time. No personal data is collected with the ACS. However, the ACS contains questions about computer usage and level of education.

  • Within the ACS portal, both summary scores and high-resolution data can be visually expected. Collected data can be manually exported from the ACS at the summary level (i.e., summary scores and date, time, and duration). High-resolution (raw, item-level) data can be retrieved upon request.

  • The data is stored in a database on a protected server. The data that is sent to the server is encrypted, i.e., not readable. The database is protected by two-factor authentication.

  • All data collected with the ACS will be owned by you, as stated in the contract. 

  • By assigning tokens to participants and using these in your database, you can easily link your data with the cognitive data from the ACS. Data will be exported in .csv format. It will be your job to assign tokens to the participants. The link between the token and participant should be kept secured, outside the portal, in a key file. This means that the personal data can never be accessed by the ACS team.

Normative data

  • In order to interpret test scores, scores must be compared with a norm group. Based on this reference we know what the normal, expected performance is for people of a certain age or education level. Comparison of a user’s scores with a norm group tells you how much better or worse they performed than expected.

  • Normative data is currently available from cancer-free reference groups from the Dutch and British populations to convert test scores to demographically-corrected norm scores, adjusted for age, sex, educational level, and computer use.

    Normative data from American, Canadian, Australian, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, and French populations will become available in the near future.

Contract & pricing

  • If you’re interested in using the ACS, please contact us by sending your question on the ‘contact us’ page of this website or by sending an email to info-acs@nki.nl. 

  • The costs for using the ACS are €3000,- per study for the first year (excl. VAT & one-off startup costs) and €1500,- (excl. VAT) for each subsequent year, with an unlimited number of test administrations. The price is independent of number of repeated assessments, sample size, number of groups or conditions, and test battery composition.