NBCOT Occupational Therapy Certification Practice Exam

The scenario presents a high school teacher with a right-hemisphere cerebrovascular accident (CVA) who is instructed to cross out "M"s but only completes half of the task. This is indicative of decreased attention, particularly in the context of the left visual field, which is often affected following a right-hemisphere stroke due to the way that visual attention is processed. Individuals who have sustained a right-hemisphere CVA commonly experience difficulty with attention and awareness on the left side of their visual field, known as hemispatial neglect. In this case, missing half of the "M"s could suggest that the teacher is not fully attending to the left side of the page where many of the letters might be located. This reflects an attentional deficit rather than a complete inability to understand or process written information, making decreased attention the most appropriate interpretation of the teacher's performance. Other options related to visual field cuts or functional illiteracy do not adequately explain the behavior observed. A left visual field cut would typically suggest a complete lack of awareness on the left side, and functional illiteracy would imply a broader and more generalized inability to read rather than specific attention difficulties. Thus, the observation aligns best with a decreased attention phenomenon, which is