MyCap Active Tasks Overview

MyCap Active Tasks are a list of tasks that can be imported into a project that have unique functionality when used in the MyCap app. 

Each of the tasks are developed specifically for the MyCap app to allow users to perform tasks REDCap would otherwise not be able to track.  For example, this can include walking, speech, memory, and auditory tasks.  These tasks will provide interactive prompts and activities that users can perform within the app and data from the task will be returned back to the REDCap project. 

A complete list of available tasks along with explanations of each task is listed under Active Tasks List below.

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Active Tasks List

For official documentation on the provided active tasks, as well as screenshots from mobile view, visit this page:
https://researchkit.org/docs/docs/ActiveTasks/ActiveTasks.html

MyCap Active Tasks List

Category	Task	Data Collected	Explanation - To be used in IRB documentation
Motor Activities	Range of Motion	Device Motion	In the range of motion task, participants follow movement instructions while accelerometer and gyroscope data is captured to measure flexed and extended positions for the knee or shoulder.
	Gait and Balance	Device motion Pedometer	In the gait and balance task, the user walks for a short distance, which may be indoors. You might use this semi-controlled task to collect objective measurements that can be used to estimate stride length, smoothness, sway, and other aspects of the participant’s walking.
	Tapping Speed	Touch Activity	In the tapping task, the user rapidly alternates between tapping two targets on the touch screen. The resulting touch data can be used to assess basic motor capabilities such as speed, accuracy, and rhythm.
Fitness	Fitness	Device motion Pedometer Location Heart rate	In the fitness task, the user walks for a specified duration (usually several minutes). Toward the end of the walk, if heart rate data is available, the user is asked to sit down and rest for a period.
	Timed Walk	Device motion Pedometer Location	In the timed walk task, the user is asked to walk quickly and safely for a specific distance. The task is immediately administered again by having the user walk the same distance in the opposite direction. The timed walk task differs from both the fitness and the short walk tasks in that the distance walked by the user is fixed. A timed walk task measures the user’s lower-extremity function.
Cognition	Spatial Memory	Touch activity Correct answer Actual sequences	In the spatial memory task, the user is asked to observe and then recall pattern sequences of increasing length in a game-like environment. The task collects data that can be used to assess visuospatial memory and executive function.
	Stroop Test	Actual color Actual text User selection Completion time	In the Stroop test, the participant is shown a series of words that are displayed in color, and must select the first letter of the color’s name.
	Trail Making Test	Completion time Touch activity	In the trail making test, the participant connects a series of labelled circles, in order. The time to complete the test is recorded. The circles can be labelled with sequential numbers (1, 2, 3, …) or with alternating numbers and letters (1, a, 2, b, 3, c, …).
	Paced Serial Addition Test (PSAT)	Addition results from user	The Paced Serial Addition Test (PSAT) task measures the cognitive function that assesses auditory and/or visual information processing speed, flexibility, and the calculation ability of the user. Single digits are presented every two or three seconds and the user must add each new digit to the one immediately before.
	Tower of Hanoi	Every move taken by the user	In the Tower of Hanoi task, the user is asked to solve the classic Tower of Hanoi puzzle in a minimum number of moves. To solve the puzzle, the user must move the entire stack to the highlighted platform in as few moves as possible. This task measures the user’s problem solving skills. A Tower of Hanoi task finishes when the user completes the puzzle correctly or concedes that they cannot solve the puzzle.
	Reaction Time	Device motion	In the reaction time task, the user shakes the device in response to a visual clue on the device’s screen. The task is divided into a number of attempts, which you determine. To complete an attempt in a task, the user must shake or move the device with an acceleration that exceeds a threshold value within the given time. The task finishes when the user successfully completes all the attempts as instructed in the task. Use this task to evaluate a user’s response to the stimulus and calculate their reaction time.
Speech	Sustained Phonation	Uncompressed audio	In the sustained phonation task  the user makes a sustained sound, and an audio recording is made. Analysis of the audio data is not included in the ResearchKit framework, but might naturally involve looking at the power spectrum and how it relates to the ability to produce certain sounds.
	Speech Recognition	Raw audio recording Transcription in the form of an SFTranscription object. Edited transcript (if any, by the user)	Researchers and developers can use ResearchKit to record audio data and produce transcriptions generated by Apple’s speech recognition system. ResearchKit also provides word alignments, confidence scores, and alternative speech recognition hypotheses in the form of an n-best list. Medical researchers and developers can leverage this information to analyze speech and language features like speaking rate, word usage, and pause durations.
	Speech-in-Noise	Raw audio recording Transcription in the form of an SFTranscription object Edited transcript (if any, by the user). This can be used to calculate the Speech Reception Threshold (SRT) for a user.	Understanding speech in noisy environments depends on both the level of the background noise and the hearing health of the listener. A speech-in-noise test quantifies the difficulty of understanding speech in noisy environments. A speech-in-noise test consists of presenting spoken sentences at different noise levels and asking listeners to repeat what they heard. Based on the sentence and word recognition rate, a metric is calculated. The speech intelligibility metric used in this test is the Speech Reception Threshold (SRT). It represents the SNR at which 50% of the words are correctly repeated by the user. The SRT is calculated using the Tillman-Olsen formula.
Hearing	Environment SPL	Environment sound pressure level in dBA	The Environment SPL Meter is not a task, but a single step that detects the sound pressure level in the user’s environment.
	Tone Audiometry	Minimum amplitude for the user to recognize the sound	In the tone audiometry task users listen through headphones to a series of tones, and tap left or right buttons on the screen when they hear each tone. These tones are of different audio frequencies, playing on different channels (left and right), with the volume being progressively increased until the user taps one of the buttons. A tone audiometry task measures different properties of a user’s hearing ability, based on their reaction to a wide range of frequencies.
	dBHL Tone Audiometry	Hearing threshold in dB HL scale User response timestamps	The dBHL tone audiometry task implements the Hughson-Westlake method of determining hearing threshold. It is similar to the tone audiometry task, except that it utilizes a dB HL scale.
Hand Dexterity	9-Hole Peg	Completion time Move distance	The 9-hole peg test is a two-step test of hand dexterity to measure the MSFC score in Multiple Sclerosis, or signs of Parkinson’s disease or stroke. The data collected by this task includes the number of pegs, an array of move samples, and the total duration that the user spent taking the test. Practically speaking, this task generates a two-step test in which the participant must put a variable number of pegs in a hole (the place step), and then remove them (the remove step). This task tests both hands.
Vision	Amsler Grid	Touch activity Eye side Areas of distortions as annotated by the user	The Amsler Grid task is a tool used to detect the onset of vision problems such as macular degeneration.

If you have a UW-Madison REDCap project and have questions about MyCap Active Tasks, please send them to REDCap@ictr.wisc.edu

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