The cross-modal attention test splits you down the middle: your eyes guard six drifting gauges while your ears process spoken arithmetic. Neither channel pauses for the other. At the end, the test reports not only how much you degraded but which sense you sacrificed. This guide explains the two channels, the CAP cost index, and how to train an even split instead of a favorite.
What is the Cross-Modal Attention Test?
The test measures cross-modal attention: sharing capacity between vision and hearing without letting either starve. This is arguably the most literal job simulation in the cognitive battery. A controller reads the scope while a pilot talks; a pilot monitors the panel while the checklist is read aloud. The dangerous failure in both jobs is channel capture, where an absorbing input on one sense makes the other effectively deaf or blind.
The structure mirrors the divided attention test: solo baselines first, then the combined phase. The visual task shows six gauges drifting inside safe bands; when one escapes its band it turns red and you have about three seconds to tap it. The audio task speaks math questions, answered on keys 1 to 3. The combined phase runs four minutes, and the report shows your CAP, the cross-modal attention cost, split by channel.
Which Exams Include the Cross-Modal Attention Test?
Eye-plus-ear combinations are a signature of controller screening. Candidates commonly report this test type in:
- FEAST and related ATC selection batteries, in multitasking and monitoring stages
- DLR screenings, where audio-visual combination stages are well established
- ADAPT, in its concurrent task battery
- Aon / cut-e batteries, in complex monitoring scales
- COMPASS and Advanced COMPASS by EPST, in multitasking sections
Providers change their content without notice and publish no official syllabus, so treat this as candidate-reported guidance.
How the Test Works: Format and Rules
The session begins with a headphone check, because the math never comes through the screen:
- Confirm the test tone; the spoken questions are the entire audio channel.
- Visual baseline: six gauges drift; tap any tile that leaves its safe band and turns red, within about 3 seconds.
- Audio baseline: spoken sums, answered with keys 1, 2 and 3. The on-screen text is only a backup.
- Combined phase, 4 minutes: alerts and questions overlap without mercy.
- The report shows your CAP and which channel paid for it, the eyes or the ears.
Suppose the tile reading 4870 flares red just as the voice says "seven plus eight". Tap the tile, then answer 15. Alert first, answer second, always. This is exactly how it looks in the test:
The combined load and the verdict it produces:
Under load you will favor one sense. The test exists to tell you which, before the job does.
Scoring: What a Good Result Looks Like
The report compares combined-phase performance against your baselines, per channel. A strong result keeps both channels within about fifteen percent of baseline with no runaway side. The classic weak profile answers every spoken question while red tiles expire unseen, or the mirror image. Assessors read a balanced modest cost as trainable professionalism and a captured channel as risk.
How to Prepare: Strategies That Actually Work
- Prioritize by deadline, not by loudness. Red tiles expire in three seconds; a spoken question waits a moment longer. Alert first, answer second, as a fixed rule.
- Scan with a soft gaze. Watch the whole gauge field rather than fixating tiles one by one; peripheral vision catches color changes faster than a serial scan.
- Compute without looking at text. Train answering spoken math with eyes busy elsewhere; the moment you glance at the backup text, your visual channel has been robbed.
- Rehearse the interrupt. Practice stopping mid-calculation to tap an alert and resuming the sum afterward. The resume is the trainable part.
- Keep the math effortless. Ten minutes of mental arithmetic daily makes the audio channel cheap, leaving capacity for the eyes.
- Check your bias each session. If the report keeps showing the same sacrificed channel, deliberately overweight it in the next run.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Staring at whichever tile alerted last while its neighbours drift out.
- Letting a hard sum capture you for five full seconds of visual blindness.
- Answering by guess to get back to the gauges; wrong answers cost more than a beat of patience.
- Skipping the headphone check shortcuts; volume and clarity are part of your performance envelope.
Practice This Skill
Channel balance is trained, not inherited. Build it with the Cross-Modal Attention module, which reproduces the drifting gauges, the spoken math and the per-channel CAP report exactly as described here. Level 1 is free, and the guided tutorial walks you through the format before your first attempt.